ARTIFICIAL LIMBS

Southland Times, Issue 19277, 23 June 1924, Page 8

ARTIFICIAL LIMBS

KNOWN LONG BEFORE CHRIST.

Artificial limbs are by no means a monopoly of modern times, stales 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 30>J 8.C., found in a tomb at Capua. This limb is 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. Artificial eyes and teeth were also known. The famous French surgeon Ambroise 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 by 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 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 he achieved with this iron right hand.