Historical medical research

Manual of Artificial Limbs, published 1905: Who knew prothetics were so advanced pre WWI?

My favourite passage:

"[The illustration] shows a young man wearing two artificial legs...; he is a conductor on a railroad, performing his duties in a thoroughly efficient manner. He walks through the train when it is running at greatest speed, collects tickets, and punches them. The cars jolt, pitch, and sway, but he retains his balance with no perceptible effort or awkwardness.

"At stations he alights, watches passengers, gives signals, and boards his train. It never occurs to anyone that his lower extremities are not real, and his actions never betray that fact. With wooden articulating feet it would be extremely difficult for him to discharge such duties. He would feel unsafe, tottlish [wonderful word!], and unsteady, but with rubber feet with spring mattress, rigidly attached, he has sound footing, and is capable of the most difficult feats of balancing."

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Of course, one has to take into account that it's written by the manufacturer--and the young man really ought to wear his trousers on the job! But even allowing for exaggeration, I was amazed at the state of the art. My big difficulty with this is that I want my character (in Anthem for Doomed Youth) to be obviously impaired. The librarian at OHSU, who found me this book and another, from the '20s, on amputations and prostheses, solved this for me.

I haven't  yet received the second book (via ILL), but she looked through them both before I requested them and told me that the outcome depends very much on the state of the stumps (I'm really quite glad not to pore over info on amputations!). As my character's legs were chopped off in the middle of a battlefield, it's quite likely the job wasn't particularly well done, so I can give him any degree of disability I want.

We writers can be brutal!