ARTIFICIAL LIMBS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18100, 16 June 1924, Page 15

ARTIFICIAL LIMBS.

KNOWN AS EARLY AS 300 B.C. Artificial limbs are by no means a monopoly of modern times, states the "Manchester Guardian." Indians of ancient times, for instance, made noses, ear's, and lips of plaster, quite frequently, a device rendered necessary bv the frequent loss of these members as a penalty. Greek and Roman soidiers who lost an arm or a leg in war had to get some sort of substitute. The Royal College of Surgeons is in .possession of an artificial leg 01 the date of about 300 8.C., found m a tomb at Capua. This limb is in form exactly, like a real leg; it is madia of thin pieces of bronze, nailed with bronze nails on to a wooden form. Two iron rods, with holes at their free ends, are attached to extreme upper end of the bronze. Artificial eyes and teeth are also known. The famous French surgeon Ambroiso Pare was the first western to describe fixing an artificial eye, which he did in 1561. He made the eye of enamelled gold, in the natural colours. Iron hands, often made bv their owners, were also known in the Middle Ages. The most famous example is Gotz von Berlichingen, the "hero of Goethe's drama. But he had n forp_ runner, who was drowned in the Rhine, and whose iron hand, together with his sword, spurs, and other imperishable adjuncts', were found in 1834 in tho river. But as early as the second Punic War a doughty Roman warrior had hit on the same means of supplying a lost member, and he was reckoned the more dangerous because of the famous deeds of. terror lie achieved with this iron right hand.