The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-20
LEGS AND ARMS OF WOOD
HOW THEY ARE MADE AND
WHAT they COST.
The Old Way and the New-Wars as
2 Help to Business - Eyes for the
Sightless.
From the Pau Man eazette.


From the Pau Mall Gazette.
At recent meeting of the Surgical Aid
| Society OF London the secretary stated that
during the year 1888 329 artificial limbs had
been given away to applicants. Cons der
ing the comparatively restricted area Of the
operations Of the society. the number
seemed very large one, and q represent
alive visited Mr.. Grossmith, who supplies
almost the whole of the limbs distributed
by the society, and questioned him regard
ing the magnitude of the business and its
crets.
sit is impossible to give you any exact
figures as to the number Of artificial limbs
about" wa, Mr.. Grossmiths reply to the
interyie wer's first question. mo statistic
are obtainable on the subject, but no one
who is not in the business can have any
idea of the prevalence of these useful helps.
Now that the days of the old peg legs have
gone by, their exis ence is not brought be-
fore people in 50 prominent fashion as
was once the case, but | could hardly walk
down Fleet street without seeing some.
You would never notice them, but L have
not supplied the public with thousands OF
legs and arms without arning to recognize
their wearers at a glance"
1.-THE mechanism is so perfect, then|
Precisely so. There is no reason why a
know that he has lost leg, provided that
good stump is left Arms are distinguished
more easily, as the movements made by the
arm are more varied than those by the leg.
A man with a wooden leg can walk as
gracefully and rapidly as any one else.
You probably passed young man wearing
spectacleS as you came through the room
below; he wears one of my legs. Did you
notice ANYTHING unusual in his gait"
81 did not, bat should have looked more
carefully at him than l did had / known
that he was one of your customers. How
Is this excellent result produced, Mr..
Cross nithN
"Well, every maker has his own speciality.
Mine is a spring action to the knee, which
willie it lifts the foot forward without labor
at every sep, revolves when the wearer of
the leg sits ,wn, with the result that the
foot remains fat and stationary until he
Uses again. Tuere are joints at the roots of
the toes and the ankle, and a spiral
spring takes the place of the tendon
Achilles. [ have several customers
both of whose legs were made
my by men. One Of the ticket collectors at
Charing Gross wears two of my legs, and
one at Kings Cross, too. They are fully
CAPABLE of doing a good days work, and
can walk perfectly we'll. The railway COM
panies are good customers of the artificial
iimb-maker When one of their servants
meets with an accident that deprives him OF
any limb they usually put him into some
position where activity Is not required, and
they almost always provide him with a
first-class substitute for the member that he
has lost; you see, a man bobbing about on
stump v ould be unpleasantly suggestive to
The passengers.
"Have | ever supplied one person with all
four limbss No, but one of my customers
nas two artificial legs and one arm-the
right; he is a lawyers clerk, writes very
good fist with his left hand, and is highly
valued by his employers. No; my expe-
rience does not tell me that the right leg
and arm are more liable to accident than
the eft Though the right limbs are used
more this is couuterbalanced by the fact tnat
cuts aud other self-inficted injuries usually
come upon the left; a man using an ak, for
instance. will cut his left leg if he cuts
either. unless, of course, he should happen
to be left-handed. The proportions of male
and female wearers are, l should say, as
nearly as possible equal. While mon are
more liable to lose their limbs by accidents
of one kind and another, women are more
subject to diseases. as white swelling, abscess,
etc.
"What material do you employp
Probably three people out of five be-
leve that artificial limbs are made of cork,
aud at one time this was true enough, but
NOWADAYS no good maker uses cork at all.
Willow wood is the basis OF all well-made
limbs. and as its strength and toughness
enable us to make legs and arms hollow,
they are in reality good deal lighter than
the old cork ones were. There Is great
del of difficulty in obtaining really good
willow wood. My supply is mainly drawn
from trees that grow along the banks of
the Kennel, running between Reading and
Devices and in the ne dows that fringe it..
This is the most perfect wood that can be
obtained for our purpose; why, cannot
tell you; l only know that from
nowhere else can | get wood
which possesses such COM
bination of lightness and toughness. Tuey
know me well in that part of the world |
am often there buying trees, aud since they
| have found out the purpose for which want
them they have put the price on considera-
bly,. The reason English artificial limbs
are the best in the world is largely on &C
| count OF our willow wood. There's nothing
| like it. With all their inventive genius the
! Americans come far behind us in this bust
ess, criefly, l fancy. because the woods at
their disposal are comparatively heavy
| Their limbs are generally made of Ameri-
can beech, good, tough wood, and one
that we use a good deal for crutches but
too heavy r limbs. On the continent
combinations Of steel and leather are ex-
| tensively used, but thew cannot be recon-
/ ASA AtShN dLS uO1o1
and silly get out of order.
Nov, Mr.. Grossmith, what sort of prices
do you charge for your productionsp ''If a
customer wants good article he must be
| prepared to pay for it. Our best leg costs
! SIC; that is, if it is required in a case
where the amputation has been made above
the knee, il below, the price is rather less.
A very good plainly finished leg, such as we
supply in large quantities to hospitals. can
be bought for ten-pOuud note. But then
good leg, if it is releathere1 and generally
| looked to once year or SO, will last life
time. A co nplete arm, made in the best
style. and accompanied by o set of
instruments To screw into the d I'm
of the hand, costs &12: less
elaborate one can be bought
couple of pounds cheaper; and for cases of
ampu alton below the elbow, from e6 to eS
will buy very good arm. Children? No.
we don't often make expensive limbs for
them; they outgrow them 50 fast and
| knock them about so much that parents
usually content themselves with getting
something rong and plain. Rich people
sometimes nave limbs of the best kind for
children who have been so unfortunate as
to lose one; at this moment have a leg in
the house which is to be replaced by one
two inches longer 1t is for the only son of
4 wealthy man, and will be the fourth with
which have supplied the little fellow"
II suppose that good workman ORC ra