The History And Evolution Of Prosthesis

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Prosthesis has evolved from different swirling stages time to time to the more advanced ,mature and sophisticated one after a long chain of memoriable events, the modern and develoed prosthesis is quite different from the archaic prosthesis. It has groomed itself with the running wheel of time. No innovative ideas were involved in the primitive beginnings of prosthesis, instead it became a very natural and essential need of the the persons with missing body organs.

The first leg was made 1500 B.C. and it is passing from evolutionary stages since then. Many refinements have been made to the early hand hooks and wooden legs, which resulted into extremly individualized fitting and molds of modern age devices.

Eyptian role:

To take account of how far prosthetics has developed, role of ancient Egyptians cannot be ruled out. They hold the position of pioneers in prosthesis. The fundamentals prosthetic limbs were made of fibers worn for the purpose of haleness instead of function. It has been discoverd recently what it is said to be the world’s first prosthetic Toe from an Eyptian mummy and it seems to be functional one.

An artificial leg had discovered in Capua, Italy in 1858 and it was considered that it was made in 300 B.C. It was made of Bronze and iron, core was of wood, seeming for a below knee amputee. Herodotus wrote about a Persian seer who was scentenced to death but he managed to escape by cutting his own foot and he made a wooden filler to walk approximately 30 miles. Similarly a Roman general got his right arm amputated durin the punic war. He had an iron made prostehtic hand which was designed to hold his shield and he returned to battle with it.

The Dark Ages:

A little adva...

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... Benjamin Palmer improved the Selpho leg by the addition of an interior spring and removed the gaps between various components which were unpleasent to look at. It added the smooth appearance, and hidden tendons to perfom the natural-looking movement.

Gustav Hermann suggested in 1868 the use of aluminum instead of steel to make artificial limbs lighter and more functional.

However suggested light weigt aluminium model was inplemened in 1912, when a famous English aviator Marcel Desoutter lost his leg in an airplane accident, and he made the first aluminum prosthetic leg with the help of his brother Charles who was an engineer.