Today’s human body has many replaceable parts, starting with Artificial hearts to Myoelectric feet. What makes this possible is not only complex technology and precise surgical procedures. It’s also an idea – that humans can and should alter patients’ bodies in very difficult and invasive ways.
Where did that idea come from?
Scientists are often depicted American Civil War As an early turning point for amputation techniques and prosthetic design. There were amputations The most common operation of warAnd complete Prosthetics industry It evolved in response. Anyone who has watched a movie or TV show about the Civil War has probably seen it At least one scene A surgeon grimly approaches a wounded soldier with a saw in his hand. Surgeons performed 60,000 amputations during the war Less than three minutes per party.
However, the dramatic change in practices related to limb loss began much earlier – in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
K Historian of early modern medicineI explore how Western attitudes towards surgical and artisanal interventions in the body I started to transform About 500 years ago. Europeans went from reluctance to perform amputations and few options for prosthetic limbs in 1500 to multiple amputation methods and complex iron hands for the wealthy by 1700.
Amputation was viewed as a last resort due to the high risk of death. But some Europeans are starting to think they can use it with prosthetics Body shaping. This break with the millennia-old tradition of non-surgical healing continues to influence modern biomedicine by giving doctors the idea that crossing the physical boundaries of a patient’s body to radically change it and embedding technology into it can be a good thing. It would not be possible to consider hip replacement without this basic assumption.
Surgeons, gunpowder, and the printing press
Early modern surgeons Discuss enthusiastically Where and how the body is cut to remove fingers, toes, arms and legs in ways that medieval surgeons did not. This was partly because they faced two new developments in the Renaissance: the spread of gunpowder warfare and printing.
Surgery was a craft I learned through apprenticeships and years of traveling to train under different masters. Topical ointments and simple procedures such as stabilizing broken bones, pricking boils, and suturing wounds filled by surgeons Daily practice. Because of the seriousness of major operations such as limb amputations Or trepanation operations – Drilling a hole in the skull – It was rare.
Widely used for Firearms and artillery Traditional surgical practices were strained by dismembering cadavers in ways that required immediate amputation. These weapons too It created wounds They are susceptible to infection and gangrene by crushing tissue, disrupting blood flow, and inserting debris—ranging from wood splinters and metal splinters to scraps of clothing—deep into the body. Mutilated and gangrenous limbs forced surgeons to choose between performing invasive surgeries or letting their patients die.
the Print the newspaper Surgeons gave Dealing with these casualties is a way to spread their ideas and techniques beyond the battlefield. The procedures they described in their treatises can seem horrific, especially because they were performed without anesthesia, antibiotics, blood transfusions, or standardized sterile techniques.
But every method had a logical basis. Hit the hand with a Hammer and chisel Make the amputation process quick. Cutting off the insensitive dead flesh and burning the remaining dead matter with a cauterizing iron prevents patients from bleeding to death.
While some wanted to save as much of the healthy body as possible, others insisted that limb reshaping was more important so that patients could use prosthetics. This had never before been advocated by European surgeons Amputation methods Based on the placement and use of prostheses. Those who did were coming to see the body not as something the surgeon must preserve, but as something the surgeon can shape.
Amputees, artisans and prosthetics
While surgeons were exploring surgical intervention with saws, amputees were experimenting with making artificial limbs. Wooden peg devices, as before For centuriesremained popular Lower limb prosthetics. But creative collaboration with craftsmen was the driving force behind the new prosthetic technology that began to emerge in the late 15th century: Mechanical iron hand.
Written sources reveal little about the experiences of most of those who survived amputation. Maybe it was the survival rates As low as 25%. But among those who did succeed, artifacts show that improvisation was key to how they navigated their environments.
This reflects a world in which prosthetics were not yet “medical”. In the United States today, a doctor’s prescription is necessary to obtain a prosthetic limb. Sometimes early modern surgeons provided small devices such as artificial noses, but they did He did not design, manufacture or fit the prosthetics. Furthermore, there was no profession comparable to today’s prosthetists, or healthcare professionals who manufacture and fit prosthetics. Instead, modern-day amputees were used their own resources And the ingenuity in making it.
The Iron Hands were improvised creations. Their mobile fingers are locked in different positions through Spring-driven internal mechanisms. They had lifelike details: engraved fingernails, wrinkles, and even Flesh toned paint.
Wearer Turn it on By pressing the fingers to hold it in place and activating the release at the wrist to release it. In some iron hands the fingers move together, while in others they move individually. The most advanced are those that have flexibility in each joint of each finger.
The movement was more complicated Impressing observers From practical everyday application. Iron Hands served as a precursor to the Renaissance “Electronic hand arms race” The prosthetics industry today. More flashy, high-tech prosthetic hands – then and now – are also becoming less expensive and less easy to use.
This technology has come from surprising places, including locks, watches, and luxury handguns. In a world without a world today Standard forms, early modern amputees commissioned prosthetics from scratch by venturing into the craft market. As a decade of the sixteenth century between the amputee and A Geneva watchmaker attestsbuyers flocked to the stores of craftsmen who had never made a prosthetic before to see what they could make.
Because these materials were It is often expensiveWearers tend to be wealthy. In fact, the introduction of iron hands represents a sign First time period When European scientists can easily distinguish between people of different social classes based on their prosthetics.
Powerful thoughts
Iron Hands were important carriers of ideas. They prompted surgeons to consider the placement of prosthetics when performing surgery and created optimism about what humans could achieve with prosthetics.
But scholars have missed how and why Iron Hands had such an impact on medical culture because they were so focused on one type of wearer, the knights. Traditional assumptions are that the wounded knights used iron hands They held the reins of their horses It offers a narrow view of only one of the surviving artifacts.
There is a famous example that colors this interpretation: “second hand“The German knight in the sixteenth century Götz von Berlichingen. In 1773, the playwright Goethe loosely adapted Goetz’s life For drama About a charismatic and brave knight who tragically dies, wounded and imprisoned, screaming “Freedom – freedom!”. (The historical Goetz died of old age.)
Goetz’s story inspired the visions of A Electronic warrior since then. Whether in the eighteenth century or 21stYou can find legendary pictures of Goetz He stands defiant He stands up to authority and wields a sword in his iron hand, an impractical feat for his historic prosthetic. Until recently, scholars assumed that all iron hands must have iron hands It belongs to knights like Gotz.
But my research reveals that there are many iron hands Shows no signs Because it belongs to warriors, or perhaps even to men. Culture pioneers, many of whom are known only through the artifacts they left behind, relied on stylish trends that valued clever mechanical devices, such as Miniature clockwork galleon On display today in the British Museum. In a society that covets Ingenious beings By blurring the boundaries between art and nature, amputees use Iron Hands to challenge negative stereotypes that portray them as pathetic. The surgeons took note For these devices, and praise them in their messages. The Iron Hands spoke a physical language that contemporaries would understand.
Before the modern body Replaceable parts If the body was possible, the body had to be reconceptualized as something that humans could shape. But this reimagining requires the efforts of more than just surgeons. It also required the cooperation of the amputees and the craftsmen who helped build their new limbs.
Heidi House He is an assistant professor of history at Auburn University.
This article was republished from Conversation Under Creative Commons license. Read the Original article.
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