The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-14
LEGS FOR ALL THE WORLD.
AMERICAN ARTIFICIAL LIMBS THE
BEST MADE ANYWHERE.

Great improvements started 10y
the Civil Wnr-Artificlal Legs for
ChiIdren-Finc Limbs for Poor
CrippIes-The Cork Leg n Myth.
From the New York Sun.
There is no such thing as a cork leg.
The head of the largest artificial limb
factory in the world is responsible for
the ieouociastic statement. one must bow
90 his superior knowledge. one more il
fusion is shattered. and the cork leg fam
ed in song and romance stumps merrily
of the stage.
The cork leg tradition is deeply rooted
ia the public mind. however and Grip
ples in country districts still send IN or
ders for cork legs. When they get cab
crate compositions of wood. rawhide, steel
and rubber they send walls of disappoint-
ment through the mails. Where, on
where are their cork legs? they ask. The
manufacturer politely explains that the
cork leg is a myth; that there have been
legs in which cork was used for filling
around certain parts OF the framework
on account OF its lghtness, but that even
shat use OF cork is now rare. Then he
explains that Cork. Ireland. once had a
fsmous. artificial leg factory, and the
term Cork legs" may have originated
there.
So the famous Miss KiImansegg who
couldn't. wouldn't. shouldn't have wood,
nor a leg OF cork, it she never stood -
coulGn't have had leg Of cork if she had
wanted H. and The richest merchant in
Rotterdam never had "a beautiful leg
of cork, with ri-tu. di-nu. di-nu.' Mod
ern science is depressingly hard upon
story and song.
Still. there is some solace left Nobody
can prove that PHny's E1ean didn't have
e wooden loot made for himself after he
lat off his own foot in order 10 escape
from the pillory, or that Sergius in the
frst century Il. g.. didn't fight twelve
successful battles with the aid OF an ar
lilicial hand of mis- own construction
Goetz Won Berlichingen certainly had an
iron hand with which he could hold bride
a shield. There was. too. the sixteenth
century Huguenot whose arm was shat
tered and who refused to permit il to be
amputated, because he would rather die
man live without fighting. They prom
ised him an iron arm, with which he
could guide his horse and. so the old
cnroniclers tell, the Queen o. Navarro
stood by him and held his hand while It
Was cut off. she furnished the iron arm
too and the doughty Huguenot did great
tie and the pegleg OF Peter Stuyvesant
are left to us.
50. even with the cork leg struck on.
artificial limbs have their place in story
il remains for the nineteenth century to
make them eminently useful, if not 70.
mantle.
The Pare artificial limbs in the six
tcenth century were made of leather. pa
per and glue. and displaced the previous
heavy iron coatrivances After that. i'm
piovement after Improvement was tried.
oad a NUMBER of noblemen own their
immorta ity 10 their artificial legs rather
than to their moral attributes. The An
3 ,ese9 leg, named for its first wearer the
Marquis of Anglesea, who lost leg at
Waterloo, made that worthy more famous
tran his fighting did; and. taking this lee
for standard. American inventors
marched on TO victory
The Civil War gave the first great boom
10 the artificial limb business in this
country, and Yankee ingenuity rose L
meet the emergency. At the ciose o
the war, statistics registered II ZOO Grip
pies among the Federal soldiers. and il I,
fair 20 suppose the Confederates had as
many. The United States government
at very carry date took measures tC
supply artificial limbs to its manned
soldiers and the manufacturers who had
been depending upon occasional casualty
or disease to furnish customers found
that their bysy days had arrived. An ar
tihcial limb may last a lifetime and
should last at ieast eight years, but the
government in a spirit of liberalty has
fixed the period at the end of which new
artificial limbs may be issued to pen,
sioners ~ three Years
What the Civil War began the rail-
roads and trolley cars continued Ac,
cdents are the price of rapid transit. and
statistics show that 100000 persons in
This country are killed on injured in a
year ~ railroads and street cars. Out
Of these accidents the artificial limb fac
tory gets business. The increase OF
manufacturers and the use of improved
machinery have also led to some accidents
and have Increased the demand for ar
tihcial limbs, and modern surgery mas
helped on the trade. Antiseptics have
lesseued the mortality in amputation cases
tremendously and the man who would
have died under the old time surgeon
hands now lives to dance on an arti-
fetal leg.
/ nc Uld-fashioned peg leg stin exists
but in an improved form, and is bought
by some cripp,es on account of its cheap
hess. The modern artificial leg of the
best model costs only 800, and it is al
must always poSslbie lot poor cripple
TO be fitted out with one, If he is not toe
proud to make his need known.
You've no idea how many legs and
arms are given away in charity" said d
partner in the worlds largest artificial
limb f2GborS 10 a Sun reporter eve sold
thirty that wereito be given to poor Grip
pies as Christmas orders for such cases
This is a sympathetic country and when
case of real distress becomes known
there's rush to relieve it. A German
woman over On the West Side was Grip.
pied not long ago and was too poor to get
a leg. A German paper published hei
case and in less than a week 500 was
sent in for her. Her leg cost 800 and the
rest went into the bank in her name ANY
number of cripples have artificial leg.
and don't wear them except upon occa.
sions, because they find they can make