ARTIFICIAL LIMBS, substitutes for human arms and legs, and parts thereof, the manufacture of which has received the attention of surgeons and mechanics from a very early date. In the great work on surgery, by Ambrose Pare, in 1579, he refers to, and gives detailed il lustration of, an artificial arm and leg, and although the construction was of a rude character, they showed a very good attempt to conceal the mutilation. In 1696 an artificial leg was invented by Verduin, a Dutch surgeon. James Potts, of England, patented a new leg Nov. 15, 1800. This soon became celebrated as the "Anglesea leg," because it was so long worn by the Marquis of Anglesea. An improvement on this leg was patented by William Selpho, who was the first improvements in artificial limbs, and more particularly in legs, were made by C. A. Frees, of New York. One of these improvements, and one of the most im portant, consists in the movements of the knee and ankle joints, by which the whole limb is strengthened and made more durable. An important feature of
this piece of mechanism consists in the introduction of a universal motion at the ankle-joint, imitating the astragalus movement with an additional joint, and thus producing a most perfect artificial substitute. The World War (1914-1918) created an unprecedented demand for ar tificial limbs, and the inventors, especially American, provided a variety of ingenious contrivances too numerous to describe. Artificial arms and hands are so con structed as to enable a person to grasp and hold objects, control movements, and perform most of the operations of the real arm. Artificial legs also show improvement, being light in weight, easily controlled, enabling a cripple to walk with ease and even grace.