ARTIFICIAL LIMBS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 14 June 1924, Page 16

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, ears, and lips of plaster quite frequently, a device rendered necessary by the frequent loss of these members as' a penalty. Greek and Roman soldiers 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 of the" date of about 300 8.C., found in a tomb at Capua. -This limb in in form exactly like a real leg; it is made 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 the extreme upper end of the bronze. Ai--tificial eyes and teeth were also known. The famous French surgeon Ambroise Pare was the first Western to describe fixing an artificial eye, which ho did in 1561. "He made the eye of enamelled gold, in the natural cokmrs: Iron hands, often made by their owners, were also known in the Middle Ages.' The most famous example is Gotz yon Berlichingen, the het-o of Goethe's drama. But ■■ he had a forerunner, who was drowned in the Rhine, and whose iron hand, together with his sword, spurs, "and other imperishable adjuncts, were found in 1834 in the 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 ho achieved with this iron right hand.