ARTIFICIAL LIMBS

The art of making artificial limbs to replace those lost by injury or by Meeap ation at birth is believed to a very old one. In the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, is an artificial | i we nade of wood, bronze and fron which vas found in a tomb at Capua, Italy. t is estimated that this limb was made bout the year 300 B.C., and there is ittle doubt that in still earlier times rtificial limbs of simple construction vere in use. For many centuries, and n all countries, much ingenuity and tudy have been spent in designing imbs which shall approximate as closely s po ible to the efficiency and adaptibility of those they are intended to mitate, and many of those manufacured at the present day are marvelously ficient substitutes. Artificial arms ire made with hands which move at he wrist and fitted with movable ingers, and thumbs which move laterally. [They are covered with gutta-perch a ind india-rubber, to imitate the softne »f flesh, and with them the owner can write, hold papers, drive a locomotive ind even use a pickaxe. Artificial legs ire comparatively simple to construct, ind with them the owner can dance, kate, ride a bicycle, climb ladders and ‘arry on the ordinary activities of life iimost as well as his whole-limbed srother. In the service of the railroad here are many men fitted in this way with artificial legs or arms. Other parts yf the body which can be succe fully ‘eplaced are the ears, lips, nose, cheeks, syes and palate. A great many men maimed in the European War were itted with these artificial organs. <A special wax is commonly used, although ars or noses Of silver are not uncommon. In either case, of course, the organ is yainted to resemble human flesh,