REAL LEGS FOR FALSE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1922, Page 12

REAL LEGS FOR FALSE

>WHAT ; CAN BE DONE FOR THE DISABLED

SPORTS FOR THE LIMBLESS.

The long and sad history of physical infirmity does not lack instances of mem. and women who, gifted more than their fellows with stubbornness and will to overcome their, handicaps, have not been held back.sfor long by the loss of sight or hearing, an arm or a teg. On© has known (says the ''Manchester Guardian") many fine- swimmers who had but one arm or one leg; football and) cricket for- the blind is not a novelty ; the accomplished dancing mistress of a big girls' school w&s a woman with a wooden leg. A man with an aluminium hand may not infrequently be seen eating his dinner' in a public restaurant, the artificial member doing all that could b« dione by a hand of flesh, h-ong, and

sinevr. . But though there are such people, they are exceptions. Occasionally one of.these exceptions, like the iate Sir Arthur Pearson, gathers about him a body of men whom be. infects with his own indomitable will; . ]>ut for. the most part the afflicted are left to shift for themselves, and usually they don't. The streets of any city to-day will furnish, illustrations of the way in'which men who lost-legs in the war hav c fallen into a somewhat hopeless acceptance of their lot. A second or third rate way at using the artificial limb has become ? habit. > Th.9 idea, much commoner immediately after the war than now, that an artificial leg can he utterly subjected by ite wearer and made to do just what he wants, i« getting dimmer; and the men. stump about stiff-jointed, slow, bitterly handicapped. ' THE DOCTOR'S METHODS. There is really no need for that at ail. 'At Grangethorpe, the Manchester hospital which is the centre for limb cases for a.large North of. England, ares,- one may 6ee how entirely there is no "need for it. At Grarigethorpe you will find men who-have brought the use 1 of artificial limbs to so sensitive a pitch that that at th« touch of a wooden foot they will recognise such things as a email ball of paper, a pebble, a 'pencil, a cigarette. You 1 will find there men who walk so upright' and alert that' it would t> 6 a keen observer who recognised a wooden leg; men who hln, jump over a succession of gradually raised obstacles, kick footballs. There are cases enough to prove that no one who ip prepared to put time and will power ( into certain simple exercises need be hampered overmuch by the loss of a limb.

It is interesting to watch the methods of the* doctor who is primarily responsible W this work at Grangethorpe. 1 He enters .the gymnasium where the men •are assembled; and talks to them in a friendly .way. He. .approaches, perhaps, a man who has not been there before .''Can you wallf?". Oh, yes; he can walk! ■ Has he' not been stumping round for months and months? "Weil, let's see you do it. 1' The man mc-ves away, heaving his leg after- him with an upward movement of the should©-, as though it were weightily carved ous of a solid block of wood. He' is e?i•dently carrying his leg rather than his log carrvinj; him,. He ■is rather crestfallen when told that that isn't walking ; but, watching a man mar<cJi steady and straight along, a line painted on tha floor of the gymnasium, he soon sees the difference. A ONE-LEGGED JUMPER, . Then he begins his course qj simple eiereises, and chiefly they cppsist in bending, so that all the joints'of the. artificial limb come gradually into play. 'The great thing is to get the man to look upon the matter as though he were dealing with a leg of. flesh and blood that has gone stiff and that has to be persuaded back to flexibility One man was. to be seen, who, after very little practice indeed, was leaping over forms in an amazing manner. One of his legs had been severed just below, the knee.

This, sort of work'did hot begin in Manchester. The doctor who is; putting so much enthusiasm into it.has already worked to such effect in Sunderland that limbless men who had passed through his hands formed a sports club there, and not long ago gave a public exhibition of their abilities. There was football and leading aw? running and much, else. .

It is a splendid work, and one hopes it will go on and foster widely the resolute spirit which is overcoming so many obstacles and lightening the weight of a burdeu that cannot be wholly removed. .