74 OBSERVATIONS ON INJURIES, ETC., AMONG ARMY HORSES. 
the pernicious employment of heel-ropes. In one case the 
hock had no angle at its anterior aspect ; from the femoro-tibial 
articulation to the coronet there was no deviation from a 
straight line ; in other cases the same condition was less 
obvious. The practice alters the shape of the feet to some 
extent, more particularly the hind ones, so that in the course 
of time the hoofs become very perpendicular. If the use of 
heel-ropes does not produce ossification of the fibrous tissues 
about the coronets or exostoses in the same region, we must 
conclude that the development of these diseases is accelerated 
by their influence. It is not intended to be conveyed that 
troop horses suffer to this extent, but that they do become 
unserviceable from injuries received when secured by heel- 
ropes we shall proceed to point out. 
Horse No. 1, in attempting to bite his neighbour on the 
left, sprang furiously and suddenly forward, and at the same 
time in a lateral direction. The heel-rope, which was attached 
to his near hind leg only, being too short to admit of such 
extensive motion as was required, gave him a check and 
caused him to be thrown bodily over on his left side. He 
fell with great force on the trochanterian protuberance, and 
an extensive fracture of the bones composing the left side 
of the haunch was sustained. The animal was destroyed. 
Horse No. 2 slipped in a wet stall with his off hind leg, 
and in trying to save himself with his left leg, which was the 
only one fastened by a heel-rope, he was suddenly checked, 
and fell over heavily on the right trochanter major, and a 
fracture of the right os innominata was sustained. This horse 
was also destroyed. 
Horse No. 3 ran back, whilst being saddled, to the extent 
of the heel-ropes, and was thrown over, falling on the right 
trochanterian eminence ; the right hip-bones were fractured. 
In no case was the head of the femur fractured, but in every 
case the fractures radiated irregularly from the centre of the 
acetabulum, and were very extensive and comminuted. As 
a matter of course, the softer tissues were much lacerated. 
Heel-ropes cause minor injuries, to which we need not 
allude. 
For the purposes of drainage of all kinds the slant of the 
floors of our stables in India is much greater than that of 
the floors in England. In stables which have the advantage 
of roofs, the incline of the floors, which are chiefly earth and 
sand, is often so steep as to render it very uncomfortable for 
horses with their heels tied. Under these circumstances, 
when a horse wishes to stand comfortably, and to rest first 
one hind leg and then the other, he reins back to the end of 
