Amputations, Iron Hands, and Prosthetics: The Surgical Revolution of the Renaissance

artificial hearts and myoelectric prostheses, a large part of the elements of the human body is now replaceable. It is not only the prowess of technology and the progress of surgery that makes it possible. These developments also arise from a concept – the idea that human beings can and must transform the body of patients in an extremely complex and invasive way.

Where does this idea come from?

Specialists often describe the Civil War as one of the first laboratories of amputation techniques and the design of artificial members. Amputations were the most common operation in the war and a whole industry in prostheses developed at the time. Anyone who saw a film or a telecession tele -warning program probably attended at least one scene showing a surgeon approaching an injured soldier, a saw in hand. Surgeons practiced 60,000 amputations during the war, by devoting more than three minutes per member.

However, a profound change in practices relating to the loss of a member took place much earlier in Europe, from the XVI^e and XVII^e centuries.

As a historian of the beginnings of modern medicine, I study how Western practices with regard to surgical and craft interventions on the body began to transform around 500 years ago. In 1500, Europeans hesitated to practice amputations and had few options for members of members. In 1700, the rich had multiple amputation methods and complex iron hands.

Amputation was considered a last resort due to the high risk of death. But some Europeans have started to say that by associating it with the use of artificial members, it could make it possible to model the body. This marks a break with the millennial tradition of non -invasive healing, and continues to influence modern biomedicine. Indeed, the fact that intervening drastically on a body, changing it radically by integrating technology could be a good idea is new. A modern hip prosthesis would be unthinkable without this underlying idea.

Surgeons, barrel powder and printing

Surgeons at the beginning of the modern era have passionately debated the best place and the best way to cut a body to amputate fingers, toes, arms or legs, which have never considered surgeons in the Middle Ages. These debates were largely linked to two rebirths of the Renaissance: the diffusion of the cannon powder and the printing.

Surgery was a job that was learned during the traveling years to train with various masters. Topical ointments and minor interventions, such as putting a broken bone, applying a dressing on a boil or suturing a wound, shaped the daily practice of surgeons. Due to their danger for patients, major operations, such as amputations or deaths – pierce a hole in the skull – were rare.

The widespread use of firearms and artillery has highlighted traditional surgical practices by tearing the bodies in a way that required immediate amputations. These weapons have also created wounds likely to infected and gangrene by crushing the tissues, disturbing blood circulation and introducing debris – ranging from wooden flashes and metal fragments to shreds of clothes – deeply in the body. Faced with these mutilated and gangrenous members, surgeons were forced to choose between invasive operations or let their patients die.

The print press gave surgeons who took care of these injuries a way to disseminate their ideas and their techniques beyond the battlefield. The procedures they describe in their treaties are cold in the back, in particular because they operated without anesthetics, antibiotic, transfusions or sterilization techniques.

But each practice had its advantages. Slice a hand with a mallet and a chisel made the amputation fast. Cut the desensitized dead flesh and burn the remaining dead matter using a cauterier iron prevented patients from emptying their blood.

Some doctors wanted above all to preserve the intact body as much as possible, while others intervened more drastically, reshaping members so that patients can use them using prostheses. It was the first time in history that European surgeons recommended amputation methods for the use of artificial members. It was a major paradigm change: the body should no longer be preserved at all costs, it could be modeled, transformed.

Amputees, craftsmen and artificial members

While the surgeons tested the saws as an instruments of surgical intervention, the amputees tried their hand in the manufacture of artificial artificial members. The wooden ankle prostheses, as they had existed for centuries, have remained common for the lower limbs. The ingenuity of craftsmen at the service of medicine was the driving force of a new prosthetic technology that began to appear at the end of the XV^e century: mechanical iron hand.

Written sources teach us little experiences of survivors to the amputation of a member. Often the survival rate did not exceed 25 %. But among those who came out, artefacts show that improvisation was a key element in the way they managed in their environment.

At the time, prostheses were not yet “medical”. Today, in the United States, a medical prescription is necessary to obtain an artificial member. The first modern surgeons sometimes provided small devices, such as artificial noses, but they did not conceive, did not make and did not adjust the prosthetic members. In addition, there was no profession comparable to today's prosthetists, or to health professionals who make and pose prostheses. The amputees of the beginnings of the modern era used their own resources and ingenuity to be made of prostheses.

Iron hands were craft creations. Their mobile fingers were locking in different positions thanks to internal mechanisms activated by springs. They presented realistic details: engraved nails, wrinkles and even flesh color paint.

The bearers share them by pressing the fingers to block them and activating a unlocking device at the wrist to release them. In some iron hands, the fingers move together, while, in others, they move individually. The most sophisticated are flexible in the joints of each finger.

Complex movements were more intended to impress observers than in practical daily use. The iron hands were the forerunner, during the Renaissance, of “the arms race of the Bionic Hands” of the current prostheses industry. The more flashy and high-tech artificial hands-yesterday as today-are also less affordable and less easy to use.

This technology has explored a whole bunch of sectors to find ideas and solutions: locksmithing, watchmaking or the field of luxury handguns. In a world devoid of the standardized models today, the amputees of the beginnings of the modern era commanded prostheses from nothing, without models, by calling on craftsmen. As evidenced by an 16th century contract^e A century between an amputated and a Geneva watchmaker, buyers solicited the help of craftsmen who had no experience in the matter, to try to make solutions.

These materials being often expensive, the bearers were generally rich. In fact, the introduction of iron hands marks the first period when you could distinguish people from different social classes on the basis of their prostheses.

Powerful ideas

Iron hands have been important vectors of ideas and progress. In view of operations, surgeons had to widen their heads to find out what would be the best place to put a prosthesis, and the realization of artificial members aroused enthusiasm.

But the researchers missed a bit next to the impact of iron hands on general medicine, because they focused on a single type of carrier: the knights. The traditional hypotheses according to which the wounded knights used iron hands to hold the reins of their horses offer only a narrow vision of the artifacts which survived.

A famous example illustrates this interpretation: the “second hand” of the German Knight of the XVI^e century Götz von Berlichingen. In 1773, the dramatist Goethe was freely inspired by Götz's life for a drama on a charismatic and intrepid knight who dies tragically, injured and imprisoned, while exclaiming “Freedom – Freedom!” ». (The historic Götz died of old age).

Since then, the story of Götz has inspired visions of Bionic warrior. Whether in the 18th century^e century or in the twentieth, there are mythical representations of Götz defying authority and holding a sword in his iron hand – an impractical feat for his historical prosthesis. Until recently, scholars thought that all iron hands should belong to knights like Götz.

My research shows that warriors are far from being the only ones to have used iron hands.

The pioneers of culture, many of which are only known by the artifacts they left behind, were inspired by stylistic trends that valued the clever mechanical devices, such as the miniature clock galleion exposed today to British Museum. In a society that coveted ingenious objects blurring the boundaries between art and nature, amputees used iron hands to challenge the negative stereotypes which described them as to complain. The surgeons took note of these devices and praised them in their treaties. The iron hands spoke a practical language that contemporaries included.

Before the modern body composed of replaceable pieces could exist, the body had to be imagined as something that humans could shape. But this new conception required the efforts of many people than surgeons. It also required the collaboration of amputees and craftsmen who contributed to the construction of their new members.