Description of a new artificial leg invented by Dr. Bly, of America : addressed to the medical profession / by H. Heather Bigg.

  • Bigg, Henry Heather, 1826-1881.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of a new artificial leg invented by Dr. Bly, of America : addressed to the medical profession / by H. Heather Bigg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    natural joint, and conform to the contour of the knee, which allows the dress to remain smooth when sitting with the knee flexed. (See fig. 4.) The square or angular straps (F), used by all other makers, (represented in fig. 5) make a very bad appearance when the wearer is sitting, and are ugly uncouth things, to say the least. They demonstrate the necessity of taking nature for a guide in all things pertaining to artificial legs. Formerly the manufacture of artificial legs was left entirely to common mechanics and those who had undergone ampu- tation, but who have little or no knowledge of anatomy; con- sequently, the construction of artificial legs has been merely mechanical, and not anatomical. They have imitated some of the motions of the natural leg quite well, but others not at all. Indeed it could hardly be expected that any one but an anatomist should be able to model a leg so close to nature as to imitate all the varied motions of the natural leg. To obtain an artificial leg with all the varied motions of the natural one I have devoted much time, and by frequent dis- sections have accomplished the object. I saw that nature used no bolts or pins to bolt or fasten the foot to the leg, but that she nicely rounded the bones at the joint, and held them in place by means of ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Then, taking nature for my guide, I dispensed with all the hinges, pins, bolts, and cumbrous metallic joints generally used in artificial legs, and simply rounded and shaped the joint like the bones of the natural leg, and supplied the place of the natural muscles by means of india-rubber springs, and the tendons by catgut cords of sufficient strength, and the leg was a complete copy of nature, Like everything which takes nature for its guide, it is very simple, and not liable to get out of order. In form, the limb is always made to correspond exactly with the natural one, then it is covered with a delicate skin, which is enamelled with the most delicate-tinted flesh-coloured enamel, shaded to suit each particular case; and the whole is so natural in appearance, and so life-like in all its motions, that it is often mistaken for a natural limb.^’ ■ji