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Show ARTIFICIAL LIMBS. Hands Made With All the Flexibility and Usefulness of the Flesh and Blood Member. "Artificial limbs nro rapidly on tho Increase," said a man who has been In the huilnesH for n good many years, "and I suppose the fact Is largely duo to tho Incrensed dangers which environ envi-ron human llfo In these latter days Of course the war between the States left a great many men In the United States without limbs or with empty sleeves These ore on the decrenso now on account ac-count of thc ravagia of nge Yet It Is no uncommon thing to meet one of the old fellows who left the battlefield maimed so that he would either have to hobble through tho wurld on one leg or without nn arm 'Iho ranks, however, who nro crippled ln this way will narrow down to those who have been Injured ns a result of the fast nnd mote dangerous methods of doing business In thews modern days. Improvements Im-provements made In artificial limbs furnish rather an Interesting study when we como to think of It, nnd It Is a rather curious fact that wo owe much of tho progress mndn to a man whn had nn ambition along hlstrlonlti lines St Hoger, a noted Trench tenor, lost his right arm above tho elbow In 1815 The arm was nmputated nbovo the elbow as the result of an accident. In the roles assumed It was necessary for M Hoger to frequently uso n sword, nnd he needed his right li r to do It. Peterson, a Prussian mechanic, devlsedi a contrivance which enabled him to do It Hy tho use of tho nrtlflctal nrm de- 1 vised by Pelcrton, which was provided pro-vided with flu ers, having the flexibility flexi-bility of human digits, he could grasp a sword and draw It from thu .icab-baril .icab-baril and was able to go through nil the mnvem"nta necessary In the performance per-formance of his part. Since that time, of course mans improvements have been made so far as tho arm is concerned con-cerned Lightness In weight has been tho great desideratum In artificial limbs, with mobility ns tho special nnd distinguishing vlrtuo of the arm, while stability has been the thing most needful when It comes to a leg The Increase In-crease In the number of ncclJents due tn the steads march of Inventive genius ge-nius which sterna to bo nt war with the security of llfo nnd limb, has vnst-ly vnst-ly Increused lhe output of artificial arms and legs during the past quarter nf a centitrv Progress has Imposed these mlsf.rtunes ns a sort of penalty on mankind the genius ho displays In uslnf natures forces In a way that tends to lessen and minimize tho physical phys-ical exertion of the Individual However, How-ever, artificial llmbu nro not a modern product Thej reach back further than the nletidjr we now use, foi men had liarned the wisdom of replacing lost members artificially before tho oomlng of Ihe Suvlor of mankind "Hack In the rays of Hero lotus men bad learnel the art of supplying these Ilisslcul deficiencies, for ho recalls the ense of a prisoner who amputated his foot In drier to get rid of the sha klea which held him captive Escaping In thla way he sought friends and ihey provided him vith u crude wooden foot which answer d In a was, all the purposes pur-poses of the old and more natural member mem-ber It Is telatcd that Serglus Cuta-llne'n Cuta-llne'n great g andfather. In 1G7 B C lost his right hand In battle, but providing pro-viding hlmelf with an Iron r -1 wns able to piuticiruto in a numb . battles, bat-tles, storming twelve camps i Onul nnd exploiting!) and desperutiiy during dur-ing the hi one! Punlo war The telepce of archaeology was enriched In 18S3 by the dlscnviry In a tomb of Capun of nn artificial leg ninng with other relics dating back to 50') II O. In the cuta-logtio cuta-logtio nf the Umdon Iloynl college the leg Is described ns a 'Honinn artificial limb.' nnd the comment Is made that It represents perfectly the form nf the human leg It wa made of pieces of thin bronzo fastened to a wooden euro by bronzn noils, tho upper part of the limb being hollow. In 1501 a tolling mechanic of Nuremberg made an Iron hand for Ooetz von Bellchlngen a (Sermon (Ser-mon Knight, nnd the Knight wns culled 'Ooetz of the Iron Hand ' The hand weighed three poun la hut It was po constructed thnt ho could grasp a sword or a lance with it. Improvements In the manufacture of nrtlllclal members mem-bers begnn In the Nineteenth century Uallllf of Berlin blaring the way by making a hand which did not weigh mnro tlnn a pound, nnd which was sttongl) Imitative of the human hand In ll.xlhlllty and extension The tinkers tin-kers moved with nlmost perfect natu-inlness natu-inlness They would rloso on light objects, ob-jects, ouch ns 11 hat or pencil Lnter Impro-vetnenlB porfecled the hand so thnt a sheet of paper could bo picked up between tho thumb and first linger. Tho changes which ha,ve been mnde In the construction of artificial limbs have made them closely approximate tho movements of tho natural member, nnd hence these bloodless and pulseless numbers havo been a great boon to tho human race, A number of books havo been written on the subject of ar tlflcial limbs, nnd yet there Is a glaring glar-ing lack of data of that more exnet kind which would prove of Interest nnd benefit to tho mm who nro Inter-isted Inter-isted In the subject. How many wool-en wool-en legs thcro nro In the country, for Instance; how many artlflclil nrms, and no on. nro questlnnn which have an ubsorblng Interest for the curious, nnd the mnn who will complete the data will nt lenst entertain n part of tho public for a while" New Orleans Ulmes-Dcmocrat |