Will the American Government present an artificial arm (not a "clutch") to the mutilated American soldier? : petition of three hundred soldiers.

Date:
[1863?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Will the American Government present an artificial arm (not a "clutch") to the mutilated American soldier? : petition of three hundred soldiers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    6/18
    Surgeon-General's Office, Washington City, D. C, June 10th, 1863. Sir : Your letter to Mr. Stansbury, and inclosed order from Medical Director McDougall, for artificial arm, is received. A board of officers has been ordered to convene in Philadelphia on the 22d inst., to examine models for artificial arms, and on the reception of their report, the desired information will be forwarded you. The order is respectfully returned. By order of the Surgeon General. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, E. S. Dunster. Dr. B. Frank. Palmer, Philadelphia, Pa. To the Board of Surgeons convened by the Surgeon-General, U. S. A., June 22, 1863, to examine Artificial Arms, etc. Gentlemen : With your permission I will present my views by reading a short paper, which will give a concise view of the subject under consideration. In the year 1800, James Pott, (who had lost a leg,) made the first important improvement in artificial limbs. His invention (the Anglesey leg) stands, to-day, pre-eminent over all other inventions of the kind, if I make no exception of the Palmer Limbs, of whose merits yourselves will be the better judges. In the year 1845 I tested, in person, the Anglesey leg, and in 1846 patented my own invention, made on a principle entirely dissimilar. With its history you are familiar. I only allude to it. In May, 1846, I presented my invention to the Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute, Phila- delphia. The investigation was continued until January, 1850, at which time the highest award of the Institute, the Scott's Legacy Medal, was given. In 1851, I presented it, (in compe- tition with about 30 others,) in the World's Exhibition, London, and in 1853, at the Great Exhibition in New York. The Prize Medal was awarded for it, as being the Best, at each of these Exhibitions. In 1851, by invitation of M. Roux, and M. Velpeau, I pre- sented my invention to the Societe de Chirurgie of Paris. The Report was published in a series of numbers, in the Bulletin General Medicale et Chirurgicale, Paris, commencing January 15, 1860, as follows, viz.: