WALKING WITH ARTIFICIAL LEGS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 72, 18 December 1917, Page 5

WALKING WITH ARTIFICIAL LEGS

"Engineering" quotes a Gorntan pro- ; f essor to the effect' that the deeimer ■ of artificial legs for invalided BolaieTS ; must not rely only on what he is told by the patient and on what his own | eyes tell him. To see whether the limbs are really suitable requires a ■ study such as the cinematograph on- •. ables the expert to conduct.. Following ; the example of Otto Fischer when first ; studying the walking of man, he fast- ; ened, by means' of -straps, t Geissler ' tubes to the outside of the legs of the • ] 'Subject, one along the tbigl and one ' along the calf of the leg. The subject was then mado to walk past the camera ; in a dark room. Roymond thus obtained diagrams consisting of four lines in each ease, representing the changes ; in the positions of the legs, and ne ', soon noticed that a man with one sound ; leg and one artificial leg does r.ot walk normally, and a man with two artificial legs still less so. Normal walking is , always progressive in spßce, but people ; with artificial limbs threw the limb forward too much and then drew it back again. There was hence an -uncon-y . scions wnete of energy, and discomforts ! arose for which the inexperience of the ■ invalid might he more responsible than the design and construction of the artificial limb.