The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-06

HANDS MADE WITH ALL THE FLExIRLITY
THE FLESH BLOOD MEMBER

Artificial limbs are rapidly on the
increase" said man who has been in
the business for a good many years,
and l suppose the fact is largely due
to the increased dangers which en-
v1ron human life in these latter days.
OF course the war between the states
left great many men in the United
States without limbs, or with empty
sleeves. These are on the decrease now
on account of the ravages of age. Yet
it is no uncommon thing to meet one
of the old fellows who left the battle
Held manned so that he would either
have to hobble through the world on
one leg or do without an arm. The
ranks, however, are thinning out, and
after while the men who are crippled
in this way will narrow down to those
who have been injured as a result of
the fast and more dangerous methods
OF doing business in these modern
days. improvements made in artificial
limbs furnish a rather interesting
study when we come to think of it, and
1T is a rather curious fact that we owe
much of the progress made to man
who had an ambition along histrionic
lines. M. Roger, noted French tenor,
lost his right arm above the elbow in
1S45. In the roles assumed it was nee
eSSary for M. Roger to frequently use
sword and he needed his right arm
to do it. Peterson, Prussian mechan-
ician, devised contrivance which en-
abled him to do it. BY the use of the
artificial arm devised by Peterson,
which was provided with fingers hav-
ing the flexibility of human digits, he
could grasp a sword and draw it from
the scabbard and was able to do all
the movement necessary in the per-
Torrance of his part. Since that time,
of course, many improvements have
been made so far as the arm is con-
cerned. Lightness in weight has been
the great desideratum in artificial
limbs, with mobility as the special and
distinguishing virtue of the arm, while
stability has been the thing most need
full when it comes to the artificial leg.
The increase in the number of acct
dents, due to the steady march of in
ventive genius, which seems to be at
war with the security of life and limb,
has vastly increased the output of ar
tificial arms and legs during the past
quarter of a century. Progress has
imposed these niSfortuneS as a sort
of penalty on mankind for the genius
he displays in using natures forces in
a way that tends to lessen and mini
mize the physical eXertion of the in
dividual. However, artificial limbs are
not a modern product. They reach
back further than the calendar we now
use, IOT IIlSI IldQ icdTIeQ WlSQOIIl OI re-
placing lost members artificially before
the coming of the Savior of mankind.
Back in the days of Herodotus men
had learned the art of supplying these
physical deficiencies, for he recalls the
case of prisoner who amputated his
own foot in order to get rid of the
shackles which held him captive. Es-
Gaping in this way, he sought friends
and they provided him with crude
wooden foot which answered, in a way,
all the purposes of the old and more
natural member. 1t is related that
Sergius, Cataline's great grandfather,
in 1877 B. c., lost his right hand in bat
tie, but provided himself with an iroh
hand and was able to participate in
number of famous battles, storming
twelve camps in Gaul and exploiting
dangerously and desperately during the
second Punic war. The science of ar
cha zoology was enriched in 1885 by the
discovery in a tomb in Capua Of an ar
tificial leg, along with other relics dat
ing back to 800 B. C. In the catalogue
of the London Royal College, the leg is
described as a Roman artificial limb
and the comment is made that 1T rep
resents perfectly the form of the human
leg 1t was made of pieces Of thin
bronze fastened to wooden core by
bronze nails, the upper part being hol-
low. In 1904 a toiling mechanic of
Nuremberg made an iron nand Tor
Goetz Won Belichingen, a German
knight, and the knight was called
'Goetz of the Iron hand The hand
weighed three pounds, but it was so
constructed that he could grasp sword
or a lance with it. Improvements in
the manufacture of artificial limbs be-
gan in the nineteenth century, Raillif,
Of Berlin, blazing the way by making
hand which did not weigh more than
pound and which was strongly imi-
tative of the human hand in fiexibility
and extension. The fingers moved with
almost perfect naturalness They would
come on light objects, such as a hat or
a pencil. Later Improvements perfect
ed the hand so that a sheet of paper
could be picked up between the thumb
and first finger. The changes which
have been made in the construction of
artificial limbs have made them cbosely
approximate the movements of the nat
ural limb, and hence these bloodless
and pulseless members have been
great boon to the human race. A num-
Der of books have been written on the
subject of artificial limbs, and yet there