Modern surgery began with saws and iron hands – how amputation transformed the body in the Renaissance

Today, the human body contains many replaceable parts, starting with Artificial hearts to Muscle feet. This makes this possible not just a complex technique and sensitive surgical procedures. It is also an idea – human beings can change patients’ bodies in very difficult and gas.

Where did this idea come from?

Often scientists depict The American Civil War As an early water gatherings for amputation techniques and artificial ends design. It was the numbers The most common operation of warFull Artificial limbs industry It was developed in the response. It is possible that anyone watching a war movie or a TV program At least one scene From the surgeon, he approaches the wounded soldier with the saw on hand. Surgeons performed 60,000 amputations during the war, spending Less than three minutes for each party.

However, a major change in the practices surrounding the end of the parties began early – in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

your Early modern medicine historianI explore how Western positions towards surgical and craftsmanship in the body It started turning About 500 years ago. The Europeans moved from the frequency in a amputation and a few options for the artificial limbs in 1500 to multiple amputation and complex iron hands for the opans by 1700.

Apress was seen as the last resort due to the high risk of death. But some Europeans began to think they could use it with the artificial limbs Body shape. This break from the tradition of thousands of years of unintended recovery still affects modern biomedic medicine by giving doctors the idea that crossing the physical boundaries of the patient’s body to radically change it and include technology in it may be a good thing. Modern hip replacement will be unimaginable without this basic assumption.

Surgeons, gunpowder and print printing

Modern surgeons early Enthusiast Where and how to cut the body to remove fingers, fingers, arms and legs in ways that were not surgeons in the Middle Ages. This was partial because they faced two new development in the Renaissance: the spread of the gunpowder and printed press.

Surgery was a craft I learned through vocational training and years of travel for training under different masters. Topical ointments and simple procedures such as broken bone position, and wound -filled with surgeons. Daily practice. Because of their danger, the main operations such as amputation Or trepanations Drilling a hole in the skull – It was rare.

Wide -range use Firearms and artillery Traditional, tense surgical practices by tearing bodies with a phrase that requires immediate amputation. These weapons also Wound Vulnerable to infection and gangrene by crushing tissue, disrupting blood flow and inserting debris – starting with wood fragments and metal fragments to scraps of clothes – deep in the body. The generous parties and the staff forced the surgeons to choose between performing invasive surgeries or allowing their disease to die.

the Press Press Give the surgeons With these injuries, a way to spread their ideas and techniques is struggled outside the battlefield. The procedures they described in their theses can seem horrific, especially because they work without anesthesia, antibiotics, transmission or uniform sterilization techniques.

But each method had the basic logical basis. Hit a hand with a Hammer Make a fast amputation. The deadly body cut, dead meat and burning the remaining dead substance with a Koteri iron prevent patients from bleeding to death.

While some wanted to provide the largest possible amount of a healthy body, others insisted that it was important to reshape the limbs so that patients could use the artificial limbs. He has never called on European surgeons Air methods Based on the position and use of artificial limbs. Those who did this came to see the body not as anything that the surgeon should simply keep it, but as something that the surgeon can describe.

Abstract, craftsmen and artificial limbs

When surgeons explored surgical intervention with leaflets, amputee made artificial ends. Wooden connection devices, as they were For centuriesIt remains common The lower extremities are artificial limbs. But creative cooperation with craftsmen was the driving force behind a new artificial technique that began to appear in the late fifteenth century: Mechanical iron hand.

Written sources reveal the experiences of most of those who survived amputation. Survival rates may be alive Up to 25 %. But among those who succeeded in this, artifacts show that improvisation was a key to how to move in their environments.

This reflects a world in which the artificial parties were not yet “medically”. In the United States today, the doctor’s prescription is essential to artificial limbs. Sometimes, the modern surgeons early introduced small devices such as synthetic noses, but they are It was not designed, made or proportional to the artificial limbs. Moreover, there was no similar occupation of today’s doctors, or health care professionals who make and fit with the artificial limbs. Instead, the first modern innovations are used Their private resources And creativity to make this.

Iron hands were improvised creations. Their movable fingers are closed in different situations through The inner mechanisms driven by spring. They had vibrant details: engraved nails, wrinkles and even Meat.

Wearer Manage them By pressing the fingers to close it in a position and activate a version in the wrist to edit it. In some iron hands, the fingers move together, while moving in other cases individually. The most developed flexible in each joint of each finger.

The complex movement was more Observers are impressive From the daily practical application. Iron hands were the introduction to the Renaissance “Manual Arms Race” From the industry of artificial limbs today. More more bright and high-tech artificial hands-and now-are also less affordable and easy to use.

This technology was based on sudden places, including locks, watches and luxury pistols. In a world without today Unified modelsModern Kalbotis early cost the artificial ends of scratch through adventure in the craft market. As one contract in the sixteenth century between amputation and The watchmaker Jenivan is witnessingBuyers fell to craftsman who have never been broadcasting to find out what they could do.

Because these materials were Often expensiveIts wearer tends to be rich. In fact, the introduction of iron hands coincides The first time period When European scientists can easily distinguish between people of different social classes on the artificial basis.

Strong thoughts

Irony hands were important to ideas. They pushed the surgeons to think of the artificial position when they were working and created optimism about what humans could achieve with artificial limbs.

But the researchers have been accused of how and why the iron hands caused the medical culture because it was very installed on one type of its wearer – the knights. The traditional assumptions that were afflicted by the knights used iron hands Hold the reins of their horses It offers only one narrow vision of the remaining artifacts.

A famous example coloring this interpretation: “second handFrom the German knight in the sixteenth century Götz von Berlichingen. In 1773, theatrical writer Goetta relied loosely from Gotz’s life For drama About Faris Jazari and fear dies tragically, wounded and imprisoned, while screaming “Freedom – Freedom!”. (The historic Gotz of old age died.)

The story of Guts inspired visions a Bioni warrior since then. Whether in the eighteenth century or 21You can find legendary pictures of Götz The challenge stands In the face of power and holding a sword in his iron hand – an impractical achievement of its historical artificial limbs. Until recently, scientists are supposed to have all iron hands He belongs to knights like götz.

But my research reveals that many iron hands No signs appear From belonging to warriors, or perhaps even for men. Cultural pioneers, many of whom are known only from the artifacts they left, did the elegant trends that characterize smart mechanical devices, such as Galleon miniature Today’s display at the British Museum. In a reassuring society Genius Other than the clarity of the borders between art and nature, the extremities used the iron hands to challenge the negative stereotypes that it depicted as beating. The surgeons took a flag Of these devices, they praised them in their theses. Irony hands spoke with the physical language contemporaries.

Before the modern body Replacement parts It could be present, the body should have been re -imagined because something for humans could describe it. But this re -imagination requires more efforts than surgeons only. It also took cooperation with their amputee and craftsmen who helped build their new parties.

This article has been republished from ConversationAn independent, non -profit news organization brings you facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Heidi Husiand Oborn University

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Heidi House received funding from Herzog in 2012, the Federation of History of Science, Technology and Medicine in 2014-2015, the American Council of Communities learned in 2015-2016, the Huntington Library in 2016-2017, and the Association of College Female Association at the University of Colombia in 2016-2018.