STEPS 
B. FRANK. PALMER, LL D. AMPUTATION 
HOW AN AMPUTATED LIMB HEALS. 
An examination of a section of a bone of the leg shows two 
kinds of tissues combined in the composition, one of which 
is dense and compact in texture, like ivory, and the other 
open and spongy. The compact tissue is always on the exte- 
rior, and the spongy tissue is always internal. The femur, 
tibia and fibula (bones of the thigh and leg) are made up 
mostly of spongy tissue with a surface of compact substance. 
These bones are filled with innumerable minute blood-vessels. 
When a bone is divided by amputation these arteries 
throw out a plastic substance, which perfectly seals over and 
rounds the end that remains. This secretion, at first an 
albuminous exudation, soon toughens into cartilage, and then 
ossifies completely, forming a rounded end of polished bone, 
of the same texture as the outer tissue of the shaft. Over 
the smooth end of the bone a perfect covering of tough fibrous 
membrane, the periosteum, unites completely and forms a 
perfect shield. Then the integuments, muscles and skin unite, 
each to its kindred substance, to complete the work of Nature 
in really healing the end of her mutilated member. Even 
in amputations of a questionable kind, without flaps, when 
the new covering has been formed by granulation, I have 
found that the rounded end of the bone, protected in its 
fibrous coat of mail, the periosteum, and covered with the 
new-made skin, is capable of sustaining the weight of the 
person with perfect safety and comfort in the safety-socket 2 
THE END THE TRUE POINT OF SUPPORT. 
The end of a bone, after an amputation, becomes as com- 
plete if in the shaft as when cut through an articulation 
according to Syme’s method. In use, the periosteum and 
integuments thicken over the end of the hones, and the stump 
spreads and toughens like a knuckle inured to toil. The 
effect is to produce a kind of flattened hall in the membra- 
nous sack, which is firm and indestructible. The rounded 
bones rest as securely in this sack as the os colds in the cover- 
ing of the heel. Thus Nature carefully completes her work. 
Then, if the surgeon has done his work as well, there is a 
perfect cushion of muscles, tissues and integuments, sealed in 
a complete skin, with only a scar on the outer surface. A 
good flap is, of course, an advantage. 
The periosteum forms a partition between the end of the 
bone and the outer natural coverings, which all unite com- 
pletely as each substance seeks union with another of similar 
texture, and if it does not find analagous particles in imme- 
diate contact, they are generated and thrown out to form a 
perfect union, and prepare the end for use. 
Now, it is seen that the end of the bone becomes perfectly 
rounded and smooth. The periosteum unites over it, sealing 
it indestructibly ; then muscle joins muscle, tissue meets tissue, 
skin unites with skin, each closing in its natural order, and 
all combining to form a sound 'point of support. Use only is 
wanting to restore a natural feeling under pressure, and 
toughen the end of the stump, as it does the foot. 
Here is a solution of the troublesome problem—the point of 
support; and here may disappear all fears of resting on the 
end of a stump, if set in a suitable socket. Persons who once 
feared to touch the end, now put their weight on it, and, 
standing thus, lift two hundred pounds. Some, at will, move 
all the muscles about the end of the stump freely, like toes, 
and the sensation is the same as that of moving the natural 
toes—exceedingly pleasant after long want of use. 
It is only necessary now to reverse the old belief that it 
cannot, and know it can be done. In the safety-socket a per- 
son experiences the sensation of walking instead of going, and 
of standing naturally in a support which feels so much like a 
soft boot on the sound foot as to cause one to almost fancy 
the lost member regained. B. P. P. 3 
THE OLD AND THE NEW PALMER LEG. 
PROM 1846 TO 1874. 
In the year 1873, after patenting the very valuable 
improvements on my original invention, I sent a Postal Card 
to such of my old patients as I presumed it would reach 
among my very first patrons. The following communication 
was on the back of the little card, viz.: 
Dear Sir : 
Remembering you as one of my first 
patrons, I now mail this card to announce 
a very important invention :—A new patent 
leg with improved mechanism, and a Safety- 
Socket, which enables a person to walk upon 
the end of the stump with perfect comfort 
and naturalness. 
The Patent Elastic Socket feels much like 
a soft shoe on the sound foot. It prevents 
all pulling of the skin over the end; and, by 
bringing all the muscles into natural action, 
removes the nervous, unnatural feeling of a 
tender stump, and toughens the end (as use 
hardens the sole of the foot), thus producing 
the happiest effect. 
Walking in Safety-Socket. 
Truly, your friend, 
AW. AAkanA. AAAaAmei. 
To this card I received numerous and gratifying replies 
from many of my early patients, some of whom I supplied in 
1846, the year I took the original patent. 
I will here give a few interesting facts concerning the 
progress in the Art, first stating that I am now proceeding 
with the new invention in the case of the first patient I ever 
had, whose leg I made, with my own hands, in June 1846. 
This gentleman is, I am happy to say, in excellent health and 
prosperity, which have attended him during the twenty- 
eight years in which he has worn the Palmer leg ; he has had 
to purchase only three legs in all that time; the first one, after 
some fifteen years, was placed into my hands, on applying 
the duplicate; the second is not worn out, and the third, in 
excellent condition, is now in use. blot one of these legs made 4 
for my first patient has been fully worn out, and two of the 
three remain in sound condition. One may be seen in use in 
Winterset, lowa, the other at my office in Philadelphia. Ho 
leg-maker has been able to induce this man even to try any of 
their various patents, though he has never been in any way 
employed, or paid anything, by me. I found him so set in his 
opinion in 1878, that it was difficult to convince him that I 
had made or could make an improvement. But a man in his 
townywho had worn my leg ten years, and who also thought 
it could not be improved, came on in December 1873, to get 
a leg, and to examine the new Patent. This man told me 
that he and my first patient “ had talked the matter all over,” 
and while they were satisfied that the old Patent leg was 
perfect, yet, in their cases, at least, with short and tender 
stumps, they could not support their weight on the end, and 
the Patent Safety-Socket would not apply. This fact they 
had fully settled, and so he wanted another of the original 
Patent legs, and “ would think about the new Patent.” But 
on seeing what it was and how it applied, he concluded to try 
the new Patent, which at once astonished him on trial, and 
he went back with such a report as caused my original patron 
to apply for the new leg. These two gentlemen joined in 
sending a friend of theirs to me for the new leg, and I refer 
to them all, to-wit: Albert D. Taylor, (who had the first leg 
in 1846), W. C. Hewlon,and P. B. Sprague, Esqs., Winterset, 
lowa. The success in Mr. Sprague’s case is wonderful. 
In these cases, below the knee, the reader will notice the 
peculiar nature and value of the testimony, showing the 
great worth of the original Palmer leg, and the certainty of 
the great improvements now made, as witnessed by the most 
competent judges, who have an experience equalled by few 
who have lost limbs, and who did not believe the new 
method possible till it was tried. 
Just at this point, as I write, February 25th, the carrier 
brings the following letter from a gentleman of worth and 
distinction—himself the inventor of the Palace Car, known 
as “Pullman’s.” Mr. F.’s amputation is above the knee. 
Waterloo, H. Y., February 24, 1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer, 
Dear Sir :—The new leg with Patent Socket arrived safe, 
and lam now wearing it. Ho one but you could ever have 
prevailed upon me to rest my weight on the end of my stump. 5 
I was always nervous about it, and fearful of the least pressure; 
but after a personal explanation by you of the way in which 
Nature had kindly done her work, all doubt and fear banished. 
You will remember I have worn your first invention for 
over twenty years, and considered that the acme of perfection. 
The new socket is a great success, and places your name high 
among the benefactors of mankind, who have devoted their 
lives to the benefit of suffering humanity. 
The muscles, so long dormant in my leg, begin to feel as if they 
reached the foot; the warm blood seems to again tingle in the toes, 
and the old sensations, long forgotten, again resume their sway. 
The mechanism is as near perfection as human ingenuity 
can suggest, combining, as it does, lightness with great 
strength and durability, while the beautiful finish and 
natural appearance are not excelled by the sculptor’s art. 
Very truly yours, 
F. H. FURNESS. 
The little Postal card reached a gentleman whom I first 
saw in 1849, walking on his knees on the ground towards my 
office, then in New England, 
The following letters from him after using a pair of 
Palmer legs twenty-five years will interest the reader: 
Elk Horn, Wis., Apr. 2,1850. 
B. Frank. Palmer, 
Dear Sir : In compliance with my 
promise, I now write you concerning the 
utility of my artificial legs. I have worn 
them about one year, and do not leave 
them off at all. I wore them to New 
York last spring, also in the fall, and 
passed quite unnoticed. I walk straight, 
and without limping at all. 
They place me again at the usual height 
of other people, and I would not do without 
them for any consideration. 
Yours truly, 
B. B. DAYIS. 
Elk Horn, Wisconsin, January 7,1874. 
Dear Sir:—Your Postal Card was re- 
ceived a few days ago, and I was much 
pleased to learn that you were still in the 
B. B. Davis, 1849. 6 
business. I remain in the dry-goods business, and shall be 
sixty-four years old to-morrow. I have worn the pair of 
legs since you made them in 1849 ; I think you only made 
one pair before. The legs yet remain good. I would be 
much obliged to you for a book so that I could see the 
improvements, although the old legs do very well, and 
will probably last longer than I shall. They have been 
to me surely a great blessing, and I hope that every person 
wearing your legs feels as thankful for the invention as I do, 
and for which I return you my thanks and good wishes. 
Yours truly, 
To B. Frank. Palmer, LL.D. 
B. B. DAYIB. 
Elk Horn, Wisconsin, February 28, 1874. 
Dear Sir:—Your favor of the 23d is received, in which 
you cite me to cases like mine. I have given you full par- 
ticulars and will send measures, and draft for payment, having 
confidence in the result., Yours truly, 
Other similar letters have been received from my old 
patients who, with Mr. D., are now about purchasing the 
new leg. lam surprised to find that many legs made by me 
from twenty to twenty-five years ago are still in good con- 
dition ; several persons who got them from me about that time, 
write now that they have worn them ever since, and are 
not yet compelled to get new ones, but will when theirs are 
worn out. I am aware that this sounds like exaggeration, 
and here refer any applicant to the men who have the legs in 
use so long. But, it is true that laboring men often wear 
them out in much less time, and a new leg once in five years 
has been wisely settled upon by Congress for the United 
States soldiers and sailors. This is a reasonable time for a 
leg to remain good. Limbs were last supplied to United 
States soldiers and sailors on United States account in 1870, 
and will be again in 1875. Applications, may now be filed. 
Only in exceptional cases can it be supposed that any 
artificial leg will last twenty or twenty-five years, still, I give 
the exact facts for what they are worth, in showing the 
possibilities for those who cannot get new legs often. I may 
remark that I have personally worn but two Patent legs in 
twenty-five years, and that both of these are still perfectly 
B. B. DAVIS. 7 
good for service. I now leave them off only for the new 
Patent, with Safety-Socket, to walk on the end of my stump. 
My knee has been bent and stiff' until last season, for thirty- 
eight years, as I have before stated in an article giving an 
account of the circumstance which caused me to make the new 
invention, and discover the great principle so long unfound in 
artificial locomotion. 
One of the Postal Cards before mentioned was sent to the 
address of a venerable clergyman, the Rev. Silas McKeen, 
D. D., of Bradford, Vermont, a town in which a boy lost a 
leg in the year 1834. Although the reverend gentleman had 
not, I am glad to say, himself met with the loss in question, 
I remembered him as the Pastor of a Church in the village 
where the boy had, long ago, met with disaster, and I knew 
the kind man, if living still, would feel an interest in the 
subject of a misfortune which forty years ago had doubtless 
awakened his sympathy. I had never spoken or written to 
the Rev. Doctor, to my knowledge, and superscribed the 
card with peculiar emotion,—with only a hope of its reach- 
ing him. The following letter from this gentleman, and 
the added article of Prof. Oliver Wendell Holmes, may be 
my apology for departing from a fixed rule which I have 
adhered to in the past—not to mention my personal loss when 
it could well be avoided. I now allow my valued friends to 
say for me what I have not myself wished to mention in 
twenty-seven years of business. The reader will now notice 
how it happened that the Palmer leg was originally invented. 
I have been told that a little autobiography would please 
the reader. Ido not wish to write it, hut, instead, permit 
the republication of a little biography mingled with a little 
Vermont history, written before I had any knowledge of the 
fact that the catastrophe of my boyhood-life had been pub- 
lished in historic form as the event, which, under Providence, 
had been made to appear as the highest life-blessing “in 
disguise.” 
B. F. Palmer, LL.D. 
Bradford, Vermont, December 17,1873. 
Dear Sir :—Thanks to you, dear sir, for your Postal Card, 
recently received, and also for the specimen sheets, or pages 
rather, from the forthcoming book. If you should see fit 
to send me a copy, I will be much obliged, and as I may 8 
have opportunity will endeavor to have it used here, accord- 
ing to your intentions in its publishment. 
As it was in this place that you, long ago, met with the 
painful disaster so wonderfully overruled for not only your own 
good, but for that of many others, not only in this but other 
countries, I have felt a deep interest in your prosperity and 
happiness, though I never before had any correspondence 
with you. 
I am an old man now, eighty-two years of age, but by 
request of this town, and that of many individuals, have 
been for some time engaged in writing a history of Brad- 
ford, not yet finished, in which I have taken the liberty to 
make some allusions to yourself. Having spoken of the 
establishment in which you suffered the loss, I say, “ After 
the lapse of many years, the fire seized the old Tannery 
with all its various appurtenances and so thoroughly 
swept them away that scarcely a vestige now remains. But 
one thing I wish to say in regard to that old establishment; 
while a fine boy was one day superintending the grinding of 
bark there, he, by some mistake, got his foot where the 
bark should be, and was thus crippled for life. But the loss 
of his foot awakened his ingenuity to supply as far as 
possible the want, and led to the making of artificial limbs 
so superior to any before known, as to bring him high renown 
not only in America but Europe, and wherever the name of 
Professor Palmer is known. Thus a serious calamity proved 
to be a blessing in disguise.” 
I should be glad to know how old you were at the time 
the event happened, where was your native place, and when 
you first commenced the manufacture of limbs, &c. Perhaps 
your book may have a bit of autobiography in it, I hope so. 
Be assured, dear sir, of my kindest regards. 
Yours truly, 
SILAS McKEEY. 
Upon first reading what Hr. McKeen had written long 
before I had any knowledge of the fact that he had been 
making history of the little story of my early misfortune, 
(which I had refrained from telling, and had hoped might not 
survive the Tanner}7), I knew not how to thank the author 
for an act of almost mystical kindness in making so honorable 
mention, while telling the tale I had concealed, as to render 9 
it no longer unpleasant. I would not now, however, even in 
my valued friend’s choice language, allow myself to repeat 
the story, if I did not, with him, recognize the Recording 
Angel’s hand, moving his own in tender sympathy. But I 
am compelled to look from present and happy effects, far 
hack to their remote causes, long unsuspected, and hear 
witness in my own person to a comfort long unknown, and 
still a mystery not understood (because not felt), by many 
thousands of sufferers whose mutilated limbs have taken 
chronic and abnormal conditions, causing painful sensibili- 
ties—all for want of proper surgical advice and correct me- 
chanical treatment based upon a knowledge of Nature’s laws. 
(ABSTRACT) 
THE HUMAN WHEEL—ITS SPOKES AND FELLOES.* 
PROFESSOR OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
(Published in the Atlantic Monthly, May, 1863.) 
“ The starting-point of this paper was a desire to call atten- 
tion to certain remarkable American Inventions, especially 
to one class of mechanical contrivances, which, at the present 
*The somewhat singular illustration at the head of our article carries out an idea which 
has only been partially alluded to by others. Man is a wheel, with two spokes, his legs, 
and two fragments of a tire, his feet. He rolls successively on each of these fragments from 
the heel to the toe. If he had spokes enough, he would go round and round as the boys do 
when they “ make a wheel ” with their four limbs for its spokes. 10 
time, assumes a vast importance, and interests great multi- 
tudes. The limbs of our friends and countrymen are a part 
of the melancholy harvest which War is sweeping down with 
Dahlgren’s mowing-machine and the patent reapers of 
Springfield and Hartford. The admirable contrivances of 
an American inventor, prized as they were in ordinary times, 
have risen into the character of great national blessings since 
the necessity for them has become so widely felt. While the 
weapons that have gone from Mr. Colt’s armories have been 
carryingdeath to friend and foe, the beneficent and ingenious 
inventions of Dr. Palmer have been repairing the losses in- 
flicted by the implements of war. Artificial limbs owe their 
perfection to his skill and long-continued labor. * * * 
It is not two years (1868) since the sight of a person who 
had lost one of his lower limbs was an infrequent occurrence. 
How, alas ! there are few of us who have not a cripple among 
our friends, if not in our own families. A mechanical art 
which provided for an occasional and exceptional want has 
become a great and active branch of industry. War unmakes 
legs, and human skill must supply their places as it best may. 
The “ Anglesea leg,” was long famous, doubtless merited 
the reputation it acquired as superior to its predecessors. But 
legs cannot remain stationary while the march of improve- 
ment goes on around them, and they, too, have moved onward 
with stride of progress. In an age when appearances are re- 
alities, in the condition of the Marquis of Anglesea, for 
instance, it becomes important to provide the cripple with a 
limb which shall be presentable in polite society, where mis- 
fortunes of a certain obstrusiveness may be pitied, but are 
never tolerated under the chandeliers. 
A boy, ten years old, living in a village in Vermont at the 
time of the accident, had one of his legs crushed so as to 
require amputation. The little fellow furnished a peg and 
stumped round upon it for years. We can imagine what he 
suffered as he grew into adolescence under the cross of this 
unsightly appendage. He was of comely aspect, tall, well- 
shaped, with well-marked, regular features. But just at the 
period when personal graces are most valued, when a good 
presence is a blank check on the Bank of Fortune, with 
Hature’s signature at the bottom, he found himself made 
hideous by this fearful-looking counterfeit of a limb. It an- 
nounced him at the threshold he reached with beating heart 11 
by a thump more energetic than the palpitation in his breast. 
It identified him as far as the eye of jealousy could see his 
moving figure. The peg became intolerable, and he un- 
strapped it and threw himself on the tender mercies of the 
crutch. But the crutch is at best an instrument of torture. 
It presses upon a great bundle of nerves ; it distorts the figure; 
it stamps a character of its own upon the whole organism; 
it is even accused of distempering the mind itself. 
This young man, whose name was B. Trank. Palmer, (the 
abbreviations probably implying the name of a distinguished 
Boston Philosopher of the last century, whose visit to Phila- 
delphia is still remembered in that city), set himself at work 
to contrive a limb which should take the place of the one 
he had lost, fulfilling its functions and counterfeiting its 
aspect so far as possible. The result was the “Palmer leg,” 
one of the most unquestionable triumphs of American inge- 
nuity, Its victorious march has been ummpeded by any 
serious obstacle since it first stepped into public notice. The 
inventor was introduced by the late Br. John C. Warren, in 
1846, to the Massachusetts General Hospital,Avhich institu- 
tion l)e has for many years supplied with his artificial limbs. 
He received medals from the American Institute, the Massa- 
chusetts Charitable Association, and the Great Exhibition in 
New York, and obtained the great Medal and an honorary 
mention from the Royal Commissioners of the World’s Ex- 
hibition in London—being the only maker of legs so 
distinguished. These are only a few of fifty honorary awards 
he has received at various times. The famous surgeons of 
London, the Sodete de Chirurgie of Paris, and the most cele- 
brated practitioners of the United States have given him 
their hearty recommendations. So lately as last August, 
that shrewd and skillful surgeon, Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, who 
is as cautious in handling his epithets as he is bold in using 
the implements of his art, strongly advised the Surgeon- 
General to adopt the Palmer leg, which, after a dozen years’ 
experience, he had found none to equal. We see it an- 
nounced that the Board of Surgeons appointed by the 
Surgeon-General to select the best arm and leg to be procured 
by the Government for its crippled soldiers chose that of 
Dr. Palmer, and that the Surgeon-General approved their 
selection. 12 
We have thought it proper to show that Dr. Palmer’s 
invention did not stand in need of our commendation. Its 
merits, as we have seen, are conceded by the tribunals best 
fitted to judge, and we are, therefore, justified in selecting 
it as an illustration of American mechanical skill. * * * 
To make ourselves more familiar with the working; of the 
invention we are considering, we have visited Dr. Palmer’s 
establishments in Philadelphia and Boston. The distin- 
guished Surgeon-Artist is a man of fine person, as we have 
said. But if he has any personal vanity, it does not betray 
itself with regard to that portion of his organism which 
Hature furnished him. At least, if he follows the common 
rule and puts that which he considers his best foot foremost, 
he evidently awards the preference to that which was horn 
of his brain. He walks as well as many do who have their 
natural limbs. He puts his vegetable leg through many of 
the movements which would seem to demand the contractile 
animal fibre. He goes up and down stairs with ease and 
despatch. ante-room were persons in different stages 
of their second learning to walk. At first they move with 
a good deal of awkwardness, but gradually the patent limb 
seems to become, as it were, penetrated by the nerves, and 
the intelligence to run downwards until it reaches the last 
joint of the member. 
Dr. Palmer as we have incidently mentioned, has a branch 
establishment in Boston, to which also we have paid a visit, 
in order to learn some of the details of the manufacture, to 
which we had not attended, in our pleasant interview with 
the inventor. The ante-chamber here, too, was the nursery 
of immature lignipeds, ready to exhibit their growing ac- 
complishments to the inquiring stranger. It almost seems 
as if the artificial leg were the scholar, rather than the per 
son who wears it. * * * * * 
The willow, which furnishes the charcoal for the gunpowder 
that blows off limbs, is the wood chosen to supply the loss it 
has helped to occasion. It is light, strong, does not warp or 
“ check” so much as many other woods, and is, as the work- 
men say healthy, that is, not irritating to the parts with 
which it is in contact. The leg is shaped very much as a 
sculptor finishes his marble, with an eye to artistic effect— 
not so much in the view of the stranger, who does not look 13 
upon its naked loveliness, as in that of the wearer, who is 
seduced by its harmonious outlines and solaced with the 
consciousness that he carries so much beauty and symmetry 
about with him. The joints are most carefully made. 
Windows, oblong openings, are left in the sides of the limb, 
to insure a good supply of air to the extremity of the muti- 
lated limb. Many persons are not aware that all parts of 
the surface breathe just as the lungs breathe, exhaling car- 
bonic acid as well as water, and taking more or less oxygen. 
One of the workmen, a pleasant-looking young fellow, 
himself, we were told, wmre the leg. We begged him to give 
us a specimen of his walking. He arose, and walked rather 
slowly across the room and back. “ Once more,” we said, 
not feeling quite sure which was Hature’s leg and which 
Palmer’s, So he walked up and down the room again, until 
we had satisfied ourselves which was the leg of willow, and 
which that of flesh and bone. It is not perhaps to the 
credit of our eyes or observing powers, but it is a fact, 
that we deliberately selected the wrong leg. Ho victim of the 
thimble-rigger’s trickery was ever more completely taken in 
than we were by the contrivance of the ingenious Surgeon- 
Artist. 
Our freely expressed admiration led to the telling of won- 
derful stories about the doings of persons with artificial legs. 
One individual was mentioned who skated particularly well; 
another who danced with zeal and perseverance; and a third 
who must needs swim in his leg, which brought on a drop- 
sical affection of the limb—to which kind of complaint the 
willow has, of course, a constitutional tendency—and for 
which it had come to the infirmary where the diseases that 
wood is heir to are treated. 
Put the most wonderful monuments of the ffreat restorer’s 
O 
skill are the patients who have lost both legs as they walk 
forth again before the admiring world, balanced upon their 
two new-born members. ¥e have before us delineations of 
six of these men. One of them was employed at a railway 
station near this (Atlantic) city, where he was often seen by 
a member of our own household, whose testimony we are in 
the habit of considering superior in veracity to the naked 
truth as commonly delivered. He walked about in a way 
that hardly attracted attention. 14 
The inventor of the leg has not been contented to stop 
there. He has worked for years upon the construction of an 
artificial arm, and has at length succeeded in arranging a 
mechanism, which, if it cannot serve a pianist or violinist, is 
yet equal to holding the reins when driving, receiving fees 
for professional services, and similar easy labors. 
Where Dr. Palmer means to stop in supplying bodily losses, 
it would be premature to say. We suppose the accidents 
happening occasionally from the use of the guillotine are 
beyond his skill, and spare our readers the lively remark 
suggested by the contrary hypothesis. 
It is one of the signs of our advancing American civiliza- 
O o 
tion, that the arts which preserve and restore the personal 
advantages necessary or favorable to cultivated social life 
should have reached such perfection among us. American 
taste was offended, outraged by the odious “ peg” which the 
Old-World soldier was proud to show. We owe the well- 
shaped, intelligent, docile limb, the half-reasoning willow of 
Palmer, to the same sense of beauty and fitness which 
moulded the soft outlines of the Indian Girl and the White 
Captive in the studio of his namesake at Albany. 
America has bestowed upon the world an anodyne which ena- 
bles us to cut arms and legs off without hurting the patient; and 
when his leg is off] she has given a true artist’s limb for the 
cripple to walk upon, instead of the peg on which he has stumped 
from the days of Guy de Chauliac to those of M. Nelaton.” 
Recent developments in the art which I am considering 
have mysteriously recalled to light the old, old story, which 
I had hoped might expire with the old Tannery, whose expi- 
ring flames fanned it into new life. 
As it must ever stand recorded in the list of disasters, I 
may as well make the best of it in showing what has resulted 
from the misstep of the boy, for I could not rest content if 
its consequences awakened a sympathy that might be allayed. 
The historian has noticed the disaster as a “ blessing in 
disguise the philosopher has found it the source of “ the 
most unquestionable triumph of American ingenuitythe 
philanthropist has declared it to be “ a great boon to suffer- 
ing humanity.” Better than this, to me, sounds the simple 
statement of an estimable gentleman who wears the leg and 15 
writes; “ The new invention is a grand success and places 
your name high among the benefactors of mankind. I feel 
as if the muscles, so long dormant, a,gain reached to the foot, the 
warm blood seems again to tingle in the toes, and old sensations, 
long-forgotten, resume their sway .” 
Reader, you pause, you cannot comprehend it! Well, do 
not try to, hut send a Postal Card to a gentleman well-known 
to fame as the inventor of the “ Pullman Palace Car,”—F. 
H. Furniss, Esq., Waterloo, Yew York. Ask him if he 
wrote this and feels thus. 
As I write, an eminent clergyman who has worn my origi- 
nal invention for twenty-six years and does not seek a better, 
Rev. E. G. Rrooks, I). I)., of Philadelphia, favors me with a 
call. I show him the letter just received from Mr. Furniss, 
and he exclaims, “ Can this be so ? I should like to have a 
return of that feeling.” The Rev. Doctor soon shall, as his 
limb is like that of Mr. Furniss. 
The mail just brings a letter from an old patient, General 
Thomas J. Strong, of Sandy Hill, Y. Y., who gallantly lost 
a leg in the great war and got the new leg to try the new 
patent, having a good limb in use. He exclaims, “ You have 
got the right thing at last.” The General was fearful of 
putting on the new leg at first, as all are. 
Just here I may properly allude to a valued friend and 
patient, the Rev. E. M. Peeke, Rector of a Protestant Epis- 
copal church, Richfield Springs, Yew York. He has written 
to me, confirming the opinion formed in the year 1862, when 
he first wore the Palmer foot. He assures me that he has 
been so well satisfied as not to have sought a better appliance. 
Concerning my late surgical and mechanical achievement, he 
said; 
“My Dear Doctor Palmer :—I think your new advance 
in the Art is one of the most marvelous things I ever wit- 
nessed. Nothing can give me more pleasure than to add my 
testimony to that of hundreds of others in the matter of the 
excellence of your patent appliances for amputated limbs. 
As you know, my case is one of the Syme operations of the 
right foot. I have walked, not only with comfort, but with 
really pleasurable satisfaction, for five hours and a half at a 
time, using no cane (I never do), over the roughest kind of 
country. On the city pavement I have found myself fully 
equal to all the walking I have any need for. I am sure if 16 
all persons who suffer the loss of a limb experience as little 
inconvenience as I do, they will not waste many moments in 
regret. I have always been a very active man, and Ido not 
find that lam now any less active than in former days. May 
you long live to make others as happy and as useful as you 
have made me, and may they all be as grateful to you as 
Your loving friend, E. M. PECKE.” 
Such expressions as the foregoing, from distinguished men 
who are only interested in advancing the truth, cause me to 
hope that I may not be misunderstood at this time in making 
known a greater success achieved than I ever dared to hope 
for. In view of this transcendent advance, now fully estab- 
lished, I am willing to pass from the original invention, re- 
membering it only as the step-ladder to the higher achieve- 
ment. The mutilated have been thankful because they 
could, in the past, go on a false leg ; they now rejoice, because 
they no longer go hut walk. Ho mutilated man has been 
able to walk in the true sense of the word till now, and the 
new sensation is as pleasing as can be well imagined in the 
change of method, to a natural standpoint. If the observer 
shall fail to see a marked improvement, in a case where the 
person has before gone so well as to conceal his loss, still the 
wearer will not fail to feel the difference. A shoe may look 
well and the wearer may not limp, and yet a painful foot 
may he enclosed; so of the stump, whose sensitiveness the 
possessor will conceal at any expense of feeling. 
I state what I feel and know, and what I have a multi- 
tude of witnesses to, that it is not easy to over-estimate the 
value of this new method and mechanism. 
Without intending to moralize* in these pages, I am im- 
pelled to deduce a moral from the remote source by me un- 
sought in the devious pathway of the invention, which 
others, wiser than myself, have sought and noticed, as fur- 
nishing the cause and the occasion for the advance step taken 
in artificial locomotion. 
To walk, even on the best of human legs, is found by 
analysis to be a “ perilous operation,” which few understand 
either in youth or age, unless some fatal misstep is taken. 
What, then, must be the perfection of the artificial leg in 
order to render the act of walking safe and comfortable? 
A knowledge of anatomy, surgery and mechanics must be 17 
combined, and then there must be inventive as well as con- 
structive ability, all practically applied by a long series of 
trials in the vocation, for without great experience in the 
art the best theoretical knowledge will result in practical 
failure. 
Professor Holmes has startlingly said : 
“ Walking is a perpetual falling with a perpetual self- 
recovery. It is a most complex, violent, and perilous operation, 
which we divest of its extreme danger only by continual 
practice from a very early period of life. We find how com- 
plex it is when we attempt to analyze it, and we see that we 
never understood it thoroughly until the time of the instan- 
taneous photograph. We learn how violent it is when wre 
walk against a post or a door in the dark. We discover how 
dangerous it is when we slip or trip and come down, perhaps 
breaking or dislocating our limbs, or overlook the last step 
of a bight of stairs, and discover with what headlong violence 
we have been hurling ourselves forward.” 
We not only “hurl ourselves,” but are, as we have seen, 
sometimes hurled with more than headlong violence to or 
from the post of duty; and in all this hurling it often 
requires the observation of years to discover which was the 
true and which the false step by the way. But when the 
life-work is wrell pursued, “there’s a Divinity that shapes our 
ends,” and what we “ rough-hew ” in darkness and in sorrow, 
is divinely shaped and bnished by an Unseen Hand, in joy. 
Surgical science and compensatory art have progressed 
with rapid strides during the last third of a century, and 
the results are most cheering to the mutilated. Within 
thirty years ether has been introduced as an anaesthetic agent, 
removing the fear and subduing the pain of the knife ; the 
forms of amputation have been changed by the introduction 
of new rules, which produce the best and most useful stump, 
and artibcial limbs have been planned and perfected. In 
the year 1834, Prof. Holmes has told us that a boy ten years 
old had a leg amputated, without the soothing inbuenee of 
the then unknown charmer, Letheon. Twelve years later, 
what the boy could not bnd, he made. Thus a leg was 
lost in pain, with no soothing balm at hand, and thus, as the 
past had not furnished a suitable substitute, the Palmer leg 
was invented to supply the loss. The broader idea of sup- 
plying others arose out of a public demand for this leg, 
which increased rapidly and regularly until the time of the 18 
great war, when it reached thousands annually. This leg is 
now sought and purchased in every part of the world. Its 
reputation has continued to rise in popular esteem until the 
present time. I now present some particulars of the first 
trials in the new advance in the compensatory art, surpassing 
all precedent. The loss which was in the past concealed is 
now repaired. Far from discomfort, there is now pleasure in 
walking, which fact is attested by hundreds of persons on the 
new leg. 
The former invention is so well known that I find it unnec- 
essary to dwell upon it. The best judges in the whole world 
have recorded its merits, and the mutilated of every nation 
now apply for it to remedy their losses. It harmonizes with 
the new, and I refer the reader to the record which has been 
made by others concerning it to show how the two blend, 
and pass to notice the last work as one of greater importance, 
since it takes hold of the root of a surgical evil, and first re- 
moves it, preparatory to utilizing, in a comfortable manner, 
he end, which heretofore, like the sore end of a finger, has 
been uncomfortable, useless and troublesome, but now be- 
comes the most important portion of the stump in walking. 
The renewed inventive effort has added a personal benefit 
and comfort not less gratifying than that gained in the origi- 
nal invention in 1846, and I am enabled to construct a leg and 
adjust a socket, under my new patent, which entirely sur- 
passes anything formerly made, and my patients, who thought 
the old leg perfect, are my witnesses. 
I am aware that the proposition to stand a person on the 
•end of a tender stump seems startling, but I ask those in- 
terested to examine into the facts and learn what has resulted 
from the unbroken series of experiments continued through 
thirty years, under the stimulus of personal want and in the 
active pursuit of a vocation which has brought to me many 
thousands of patients in every mutilated condition—some 
from all countries—thus disclosing every form of amputation, 
and every consequent want, showing the successes and fail- 
ures in the modes of treatment, surgical and mechanical, 
throughout the world. 
All will admit the value, when they can see the practica- 
bility of this new and startling method, which, far from 
being a hobby of mine, or of any person whom I ever had 
heard of, was found and established while I was engaged in 19 
a more questionable surgical experiment on the stiff' knee, 
which had been bent and useless for 88 years, and was sug- 
gested by the improved condition of the tender and nervous 
end, which had been prepared by the manipulations and pres- 
sure upon it, and by a healthy though forced action of the 
muscles within it, (in the process of straightening the knee), 
for the startling test. 
The first thought of standing on the end of a stump which 
I had guarded from pressure, and touch even, as I would an 
eyeball, gave me a thrill and caused nervous excitement not 
pleasant to feel, and not finally allayed until the act of stand- 
ing had been successfully accomplished. And, it may be 
noted, that as I had no idea of making such an experiment 
until the hour when it flashed across my mind and was tried, 
I had made no preparation for such a trial. 
“ Necessity is the mother of invention,” sometimes, indeed. 
I found it necessary to improvise a trial-socket, without ma- 
terials or implements, in order to utilize a troublesome (or 
valuable) thought at the moment when I had the nerve to 
attempt it. Necessity had disclosed the want of the inven- 
tion originally, in the loss of the leg. The failure of the 
surgeon in his work so long before (though a kind, intelli- 
gent man) had suggested a surgical experiment for which 
there was no report of a parallel case successfully treated. I 
was engaged alone and unaided in forcing out the stiff knee, 
which seemed to defy attack, when this new thought came 
into my mind. lat once clasped my fingers so as to form a 
socket of the hollows of my two hands combined, and, plac- 
ing the end of the stump, nervous and shivering, into this 
natural socket, found that I could rest my weight in that 
way with comfort. This was the first trial of the “ Safety- 
Socket,” and it at once assured me that the test might lead 
to important results. At this point the 'possibility of the 
method had been demonstrated. Was it feasible? Was it 
safe? What if the wearer should fall and force his stump 
violently downward? Was it, in short, a method to be 
adopted, or an extreme exception to a rule,—that was only 
possible ? Should I, perhaps, do myself an injury in using 
it ? Finally, how should the socket be made, and who would, 
dare to try it among my patients. All these thoughts came 
into my mind, and many more which may be imagined. If 
in error it was a thing to be quietly rejected, and if I was 20 
not in error it was of too much importance to be pressed into 
use until fully perfected in all the details. At length I men- 
tioned it to one or two persons about me and found that they 
could not understand it. I searched the works for light on 
the subject for months and found no comfort in them, Ho 
one had written that it could be done, and as no person 
about me could think it possible I thought best to assure 
myself most fully in the quiet of my own home, free from 
criticism, with no one ready to laugh at ray failure if such 
it should finally be. I proceeded from day to day cautiously, 
but steadily, and after hundreds of successful trials of sockets 
in private, put on the invention in the presence of my assist- 
ants, who were at once convinced of its success. 
My left leg was amputated, when ten years of age, about 
two inches below the knee. The knee was then bent back 
and became stiff. For ten years on a crutch, and twenty- 
eight on an artificial leg, I have walked with my knee-joint 
permanently bent and stiff, and in thirty-seven years no 
attempt was made to straighten it. Feeling an irrepressible 
desire to use the knee-joint, and in the hope that it could 
possibly be done, I had a careful examination made by distin- 
guished surgeons, who gave reasons for believing the leg 
could not be straightened without a severe surgical operation. 
I confess that their opinion appeared to be formed intelli 
gently, beyond grounds for question, but ray desire to 
straighten the knee was so great that I determined to try 
the experiment. In one month I gained so much in exten- 
sion as to find complete success assured, and in a short time 
I could freely move the hitherto useless joint. The active 
efforts in straightening it had given new tone to the mus- 
cles, and the limb possessed double its former strength ; the 
thigh increased three inches in size, and became the counter- 
part of its fellow in appearance as well as in strength. What 
I had not ventured to hope for in thirty-eight years—walking 
PERFECTLY WITH MY TWO NATURAL KNEES, like my fellows 
became a reality; but so strange was the transition that I 
was disposed to question the facts concerning a condition so 
gratifying. Then arose a review of the whole subject of 
amputations, stumps, and artificial legs. 
For the information of persons interested, who will admit 
the value of the new theory when they can be convinced of 
its comfort and safety, the following letters are presented. Who would try it in Philadelphia ? Meeting a gentleman 
who is prominent at the Philadelphia Bar, and who had a 
tender stump, as my own had been, I told him what I had 
done. He would not be impolite, and as he had from boy- 
hood found comfort in my invention , he would not willingly 
allow his incredulity to be manifest, but it was soon discovered. 
That night he began to think of what I had told him 
and wondered if I was a little insane on a troublesome point 
of invention too long contemplated, or if possibly it could be 
true that a man could walk on the end of a tender stump. 
The advent of the new leg on the icy pavement of the side- 
walk in Philadelphia was made one week later by him. 
Commissioner Hibler, will tell the rest of the story here, as 
he wrote it to a gentleman who just then had addressed me 
thus. 
“ Office of Fowler &■ House, Druggists, ) 
Montgomery, Alabama, March 11, 1878. f 
Dr. B. F. Palmer, 
Dear Sir ;—Your letter about the new patent leg has come 
to hand. It seems that the improvement is a complete suc- 
cess ; but I confess that it is hard for me to believe that one 
can bear even a portion of his weight on the end of the 
stump. Does the new improvement obviate the chafing? 
Can I walk with more ease and a more natural appearance 
than with the style of leg (Palmer) now worn by me ? 
Yours, &c., E. G. FOWLER.” 
Dear Sir ;—Your letter to Dr. B. F. Palmer, has just been 
presented to me by him with the request that I would 
answer it, and state my experience in regard to the direct 
application of the weight of the person to the end of the am- 
putated leg. I had worn the Palmer leg for many years, with 
great satisfaction, before trying the new mechanism. 
When Dr. Palmer first suggested walking on the end of 
the stump, I thought it was the chimera of a brain allowed 
to dwell too long upon one subject. In fact, knowing my 
stump (an amputation of 1847) to be an extremely conical 
and sensitive one, I believed it to be an utter impossibility; 
but, accepting his suggestions for testing it, as soon as I went 
home I experimented upon my leg by clasping my hands 
over the end of the stump and forcing my weight upon it, 
cautiously at first, but firmly. I was greatly surprised to 
find that no pain resulted from the experiment. Encouraged, 
the next morning I increased the pressure, and was aston- 
ished at the amount I could sustain. Still doubting, I per_ 
“ Philadelphia, March 18,1873. 22 
severed for a week or more and then went to the manufac- 
tory and had the appliance for taking the pressure directly 
upon the end of the stump fixed into my artificial leg. 
Thoroughly unbelieving, I tried it, and to my surprise no pain 
followed. Willing to give it a fair trial, I went out into the- 
street and home, and have worn it continually ever since. 
While attending a hall one evening at the Academy of 
Music, in this city, I advanced to address some friends .in a 
box, and in stepping forward to greet them, I made a mis- 
step with my artificial leg foremost, and went down about the 
height of a chair, with such force as to break the lacing of 
the upper part of the leg above the knee. I supposed that i 
had torn the end of the stump open, and retired to see what 
injury I had sustained. I was greatly astonished to find the 
external surface of the stump was not in any way injured.. I 
repaired the lacer and walked home with my friends, and 
the next morning walked down to my office without a cane 
(rarely ever using one) a distance of about one paile, with 
only the natural soreness resulting from such a concussion. 
I have used the leg ever since with in .reused confidence and 
growing pleasure at the result. 
I am satisfied that it is the great improvement of the age. 
The new sensation upon the end, in the safety socket, is much like 
that felt on the bottom of the foot in the boot, so that the leg 
again appears almost natural, rather than artificial. Ao one 
is able to see from my gait that I wear an artificial leg. 
Persons whose legs have been amputated by modern methods 
of surgery, will be able to walk on it at once, without pain, 
and with an ease and elasticity of motion that will not only 
gratify, but astonish them to a degree beyond conception. 
Very respectfully, W. GRIER HIBLER, 
United States Commissioner, 
435 Library St., PhilaA 
E. G. FOWLER, Esq. 
Montgomery, Alabama, 
August 9th, 1873. 
“ Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—The new improved leg reached me about six weeks since. 
The safety-socket, or etid support, is a complete success. I walk with 
greater ease and more comfort with the end support than without it. 
The leg gives me perfect satisfaction, and with your new improvement 
you certainly have the best artificial leg ever seen. I have worn it daily 
since receiving it, and have had no trouble with it; my stwnp has not 
been chafed or irritated from the use of the leg. 
Very respectfully, E. G. FOWLER. 
March 23d, 1874. 
The new leg has never given me any pain. E. G. FOWLER." In all the past it has been erroneously supposed that the 
point of amputation could not properly become the point of 
support in cases of amputation between joints. This belief is 
so firmly fixed in the minds of surgeons, limb-makers, and 
limb-wearers, that an attempt to introduce the new method is 
likely at first, unless happily presented, to encounter disbelief 
and opposition from those who should at once become its 
advocates. Fortunately, however, those who have lost limbs 
will he willing to fairly consider the evidences, and will be 
glad to discover that the new theory has been established by 
sound anatomical, surgical and mechanical tests. 
Let us notice a few evidences of the progress of Surgical 
Science and Compensatory Art in the 
past, to aid in accepting the truth of the 
present time. In the sixteenth century, 
Ambrose Pare, the great surgeon of the 
time, for once left the old place of election. 
just below the knee (which had been the 
method of Celsus and Galen), and ampu- 
tated a leg at the lower- third, or above the 
ankle. He did it in the hope that an arti- 
ficial leg could be made which could be used 
by his patient with the long stump, as he 
Leg below Knee, 
1560. 
thought a leg should be used. The mechanicians of that age 
failed, in this case, to make a useful leg, and Pare performed 
a second amputation, removing the long stump below the 
knee, simply because the limb-makers were unable to fit a 
socket upon which the patient could walk. 
This failure was fatal to the Art for centuries. 
At last the long stump, as made by Pare, 
was demonstrated to be the best possible for 
applying the Palmer leg. It then became the 
model stump, and surgeons changed the “ place 
of election.” 
Reflect upon the sad experience of the noblest 
and most learned surgeon of comparatively 
modern times. Pare was the great Apostle of 
Mercy to the suffering. He was pained to 
witness the crudeness of the best artificial 
legs, and yielded. his efforts with a heavy 
heart on account of the mechanical failure. 
Leg above Km e. 
1560. 24 
It does not appear that any successful attempt has been 
made in the past to render the end of the stump the point of 
support in case of amputation between joints. Par 6 does not 
mention it, Yerduin, in 1696, placed the support on the walls 
of the thigh for amputations below the knee. Yon Sollingen 
attempted, in vain, to support the weight on the sides of the 
leg below the knee. Both failed. Goyrand, in 1831, trans- 
ferred the point of support to the perinatum. These are the 
methods known in the past, and practiced in France and 
England, as well as in America. 
Limb makers, for centuries prior to the present, selected 
from these plans without any established rule. 
In 1846, new rules for amputations, and for 
fitting stumps, were established, and since then 
the operations of Syme and Pirozoft* settled 
the question of support on the end, in case 
of an amputation at the knee or ankle. Suit- 
able mechanism was soon made for these operations. 
The step now taken gains support on the end 
in case of amputation at a point between joints, 
giving immense advantage in use. To at once 
Syme Operation 
become convinced of its practicability, it is only 
necessary to try it intelligently, and not attempt 
to reason it out The reasoning of men for hun- 
dreds of years only kept systems unsettled, de- 
layed progress, and maintained a fear on the part 
of the sufferer to try false legs of any kind. It 
is well to give less thought to what cannot than 
to what can be done in this important matter. 
Intelligent action on the part of surgeons and 
their subjects, for one year now, will demon- 
strate a gain to the mutilated surpassing the 
Model Stump, 
1846. 
achievements of past centuries, and beyond present belief. 
In all the past I have abstained from announcements of 
trivial improvements or questionable theories, and am now 
willing to trust to the Profession to decide on the evidences 
of the new method, assured that the mutilated will soon 
settle the question of its value in a practical way. 
For the benefit of those not familiar with Osteology, or 
the anatomy of the bones, and the manner in which an ampu- 
tated limb heals, it is important to give some information in 25 
order that mutilated persons may understand the perfect safety 
of the new method of bringing the amputated end of a limb 
into contact with a socket, as a point of support. While the 
true condition is not understood, a person cannot make an 
intelligent trial of the new method, and a slight disturbance 
of the muscles over the end of the stump gives unnecessary 
anxiety, and a groundless fear of forcing the end open by 
such contact. There is no danger of this result, as is shown 
in the first article of this book. 
The statement of James Tanner, Esq., Deputy Collector of 
the Port of New York, is conclusive on 
this point (see page 29). I now have four 
double amputations which establish the 
fact fully. 
The cut shows the application of the 
Safety-Socket to these four men, to whom 
reference is given, and whose names will 
be found in this book. Standing (as seen) 
on the ends of the stumps in the safety- 
socket is so pleasant that persons walk by 
the hour for exercise. The feeling is much 
the same as that of standing on the sole 
of the natural foot. Muscles and tendons 
which have been shortened and left inac- 
tive, are again brought into natural action 
about the end of the stump and, through the 
Both Patent Legs. 
thigh, to the body. The end of the stump seems to be- 
come the foot in the new socket, which is, to it, the boot. 
There is no sinking down in walking, as when the sup- 
port is on the sides of the leg. A firm, unflinching step 
takes the place of a step otherwise cautious and light. 
The end of the stump, when subjected to the new use, 
instead of becoming more tender and sensitive, soon be- 
comes tough and callous. Twitching nerves become quiet and 
comfortable, and from the abnormal the limb seems to regain 
the natural condition. Why should it not be so? Nature 
thoroughly heals her wounds and perfects her work. 
When the stump has fully healed, its immediate use, in the 
Safety-Socket, is desirable. By thus commencing a healthy 
action of the muscles they regain a vigorous condition, and 
all abnormal adhesions of the integuments and nerves are 
avoided. The Safety-Socket cannot be too soon applied. 26 
THE PALMER LEG IN BATTLE. 
LETTER OF GENERAL W. F. BARTLETT. 
Powhatan Iron Works, 
Dear Sir:—ln reply to yours of the 23d inst., I willingly 
bear testimony in favor of your leg over all others that I 
have tried or seen. Three years of active campaigning in 
the last war, and frequent severe tests that travel on foot and 
horseback have since subjected it to, have so proved its dura- 
bility and perfection, that I was incredulous when you told me 
you had made something better still; and it was not until I 
stood in your office on the end of my stump that I could believe 
it possible. 
Richmond, Ya., August 26,1873 
You are the only man who has ever forced me to admit 
that there could be anything better for the purpose than a 
Palmer leg. 
Can you make me a new leg on the improved plan without 
my visiting Philadelphia ? If not, I will stop and be fitted 
when next passing through; although, as I told you, this 
leg is quite good enough. 
Very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
W. F. BARTLETT, 
B. Frank. Palmer, LL. D, 
President, 27 
THE LATE XL S. MINISTER TO SPAIN. 
Letter of Major-General Sickles. 
Sir :—I have great pleasure in bearing testimony to the 
excellence of the artificial leg you made for me. I have used 
it long enough to convince me of the superior mechanical con- 
struction of the limbs you make. 
My intercourse with yourself has impressed me with your 
unwearied devotion to your patients, and the rare scientific 
accomplishments you bring to their relief. 
In placing this note at your disposal, I only perform a duty 
to my comrades who may, by the fortune of war, have 
occasion for your services. 
I remain, Dear Sir, very respectfully, 
D. E. SICKLES. 
B. Frank. Palmer, LL.D. 
PALMER LEG AND SAFETY-SOCKET ABOVE KNEE, 
The cut (a sectional view, with open- 
ings) gives a good view of the mechanism 
and safety-socket in the new Patent LegT 
as applied above the knee. It is essen- 
tially the same employed in the various 
cases, only modified to suit the require- 
ments of different amputations. 
Sometimes the safety-socket rests On the 
top rim of the leg (in case of a shoit 
stump); in other cases, it rests on, or is 
attached to a point lower down (in case of 
a long stump.) This is the case both below 
and above the knee. 
The safety-socket is perforated all over 
with holes to ventilate and keep the stump 
healthy and cool. 
The exceeding simplicity of the new 
leg is seen at a glance. 
New Patent, 1873, 28 
LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL FESSENDEN. 
The gallant young General Fessenden,' son of the late 
Secretary of the Treasury, lost his leg below the knee early 
in the great war, and continued on active duty to the end. 
He was a worthy compeer of General Bartlett, and did 
as gallant service in the field on the Palmer leg. 
General Fessenden is now filling a useful and honorable 
position in his native state, Maine. 
Washington, December 27,1864. 
Dear Sir ;—Having worn one of your patent legs, I desire 
to add my testimony in favor of an invention so beneficial to 
humanity. I suffered amputation of my right leg, six inches 
below the knee, in April, 1864, Five months later I began 
to wear my false leg which you made. The socket was 
comfortably fitted, and I have no trouble with the leg 
whatever. I cannot express in language my admiration and 
gratitude for an invention which reconciles me to the loss o 
a limb, and enables me to enjoy so much. My patent leg 
has been perfectly satisfactory in every way. 
I am, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
FRANCIS FESSENDEN. 
B. Frank. Palmer, LL.D. 
LETTER OF GENERAL MACRAE, U. S. A. 
No. 100 East Third Street, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, January 1, 1866. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer, 
Dear Sir;—Your manufacture of Artificial Legs has 
been fully tested by me during a period of more than six- 
teen consecutive years. I take pleasure in testifying, for 
the benefit of others, that your manufacture is very durable, 
simple, and excellent. I have not the talent to point out any 
change in it. Very truly yours, 
N. C. MACRAE, U. S. A. 
General Macrae was the first prominent military man 
who purchased the Palmer leg for active service, in the year 
1847. He remained in the service on duty till honorably 
retired, in 1861. 29 
JAMES TANNER, ESQ., 
DEPUTY COLLECTOR OF THE PORT OP NEW YORK. 
This gentleman lost both legs (four inches below the kneee) 
in the great war. 
We hear of him riding on horse in the field with two Palmer 
legs, on special duty, and then, when dismounted, dragging 
on the rough ground with one patent foot clinging to the 
stirrup. When the war was over he turned his talents to 
good account by accepting an important office in the New 
York Custom House, where he may he seen or written to. 
Collector’s Office, IT. S, Custom House 
My Hear Sir :—I consider myself morally 
bound to lay before you the result, or a 
bare synopsis at least of the result, of my 
experience, in walking on a pair of your 
artificial limbs. I have four inches of 
stump below each knee, the amputation 
done on the field under fire and illy per- 
formed. In April, 1868, over ten years ago, 
I procured a pair of your limbs which I 
have worn constantly since that time. My 
experience on them in that time has been 
varied and trying in the extreme to the 
artificials. I jumped from a wagon once, 
some several years ago, when my horse was 
attempting to run away, and came down 
heavily on my feet, fully expecting to break 
one or both of the legs. They stood the 
New York, August 26,1878. 
Safety-Socket. 
New Palmer Leg. 
shock without injury. On the Hatcher’s Run battle-field, in 
1865, 1 was thrown from homeland my foot hanging in the 
stirrup, I was dragged over rough ground several rods, but 
the artificial portion of my body stood it much better than 
the natural portion. I seldom stop a street car to get on or 
off". In short, if ever a man gave artificial limbs rough 
usage, I am that man, and I must say that their durability, 
utility and excellence have exceeded my highest hopes. 
After ten years constant I deem them capable of at 
least several years good service, yet I now set them aside for 
the new patent, with safety-socket. 30 
A word as to the safety-socket. I confess when I first read 
your letter, stating that you proposed we unfortunates should 
attempt to go on the end of our stumps, it sent a nervous 
thrill through me; but following your advice about testing 
what amount of pressure my stumps would bear, I was 
amazed at the very favorable results. I have the utmost 
confidence, after experimenting, as I now have on my new 
limbs, that the safety-socket is a great success—the ne plus ultra 
for all with amputated limbs. 
September 4th. 
After a practical test, a thorough trial of my new legs with 
the safety-sockets lam bound to say this ; You could never 
have prevailed upon me to be your first patient in the 
matter of receiving support on the end of the stump, for I 
think every one of my fellow unfortunates will agree with 
me that the idea when first presented to the mind strikes 
one with horror, and raises the strongest unbelief-, nothing 
but the knowledge that some one else had done it, induced me 
to try it. One of my stumps was particularly tender, as the 
bone had once burst through the end. 
Now, I will tell you what I have done and do; Sitting down, 
I stamp my feet with all my power; standing up, with my 
hands resting on chairs, I raise myself two feet from the floor, 
and letting go the chairs, come down “ right side up with care.” 
The sum of the usage is,—l have demonstrated the com- 
plete success of the safety-socket. It is positively comfortable. I 
speak strongly in its favor. Those who read this" and know 
me, will, I believe, be induced to investigate the matter. To 
those of our class who do not yet accept the facts, I beg 
leave to say that too well do I realize all the discomfort 
attending their crippled condition to either willingly or 
unwittingly lead them in a wrong direction. 
Yours, truly, JAMES TANNER, 
Chief Clerk, &c. 
U. S. Custom House, Wall street. New York. 
New York, Oct. Ist, 1873. 
My Dear Sir ;—The legs exceed my utmost expectations. 
I don’t know what more I can say. Everybody notices the 
increased facility with which I move. I walk with much 
more ease and confidence, especially without a cane. 
I am to-day sworn in as Deputy Collector of the Port. 
Yours, in haste, JAMES TANNER. 
Deputy Collector U S. Custom House, New York. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Peoria, Illinois, August 26, 1873 
Dear Sir:—The leg was duly received and works well. 
The safety-socket is a decided improvement. There is a 
pleasantness with it that will make it a success. It keeps* 
the stump from the sides of the limb. lam satisfied. 
Yours, truly, 
JOHY J. JACK. 
Harrisburg, Pa., August 29,1878. 
Dr. B, F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—Your new Patent leg with safety-socket, is the 
most complete success imaginable. The first day I wore it I 
put my whole weight on the end of my stump and walked at 
least three miles with the pressure on the end,as the first trial. At 
night I found the end of the stump free from soreness. It 
surpasses all my expectations, and I am compelled to admit 
what I could not before trial believe, that the end of the stump 
in a socket like your Patent, is the time point of support. 
I feel, and seem to move, my whole foot and all my toes 
in walking. I am astonished beyond measure at this won- 
derful result. Respectfully, yours, 
P. J. HART. 
Waverly, Yew York, August 17,1873. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—I am happy to inform you that the leg is a 
complete success in every respect. I could not begin to tell 
you what a great benefit it is to me. I would not go without 
it now for a thousand dollars. I am working on the P. and 
Y. Y. Railroad as foreman, building double tracks in a very 
rough place, among iron, gravel and ties, and I can travel 
around without any care with great ease and comfort. 
I can bear a great weight on the end of my stump and 
not notice it. My stump has a very natural and easy feeling. 
Yearly every one noticed when I came back, how easy I 
walked. lam satisfied and well pleased with the leg. It is 
a great improvement. 
Respectfully, yours, 
PATRICK MOORE. 32 
NEW PALMER LEG, 
AND 
“SAFETY-SOCKET,” 
(Below Knee.) 
PATENTED APRIL 8, 1873 
(Above Knee.) 
This invention consists in various improvements in the 
construction of the artificial leg invented and patented by 
me in 1846, and known to the public as the Palmer Leg. 
The object of these improvements is to render the leg lighter, 
stronger, more elastic and life-like in its motion; to adapt 
it to support the weight of the wearer upon the end of the 
stump, by the introduction of a properly-constructed socket; 
to give a double support and increased flexibility to the foot, 
by the introduction of auxiliary tendons in addition to and 
in aid of the cord or tendon representing the natural tendo- 
Achillis ; to improve the movement generally ; to give com- 
plete side-motion to the foot, and a fine external finish. 
A safety-socket is adapted to the end, to support a part 
or all of the weight, as the stump will allow. This socket 
introduces a new method, of walking. It applies above or below 
the knee equally well, and is the greatest comfort to the 
wearer, being adapted to every kind of stumps. 
The advance step now taken is the result of patient inven- 
tive efforts, continued since the year 1846, and is without a 
parallel in the progress of the Art. 33 
AN OLD AMPUTATION, 
AND 
THE NEW PALMER LEG BELOW KNEE. 
I present a cut of a leg as amputated at the old place of 
election, by Pare, the end resting in the patent safety-socket in 
new Palmer Leg. 
It is a happy fact, that this form of 
amputation, made for a use quite unlike 
that in which it is now utilized, is found 
to answer admirably in the safety-socket; 
as the entire length is employed, it becomes 
equal, in leverage, to a stump twice as long 
when fitted without the Safety-Socket. 
This stump, intended to go on the knee 
(bent), was not supposed to be long enough 
to use the natural joint in walking. 
The base of support, in this case, is 
broad and admirable, and the control of 
the leg is complete, with a stump only two 
inches below the knee. 
Stumps of this kind, which have been 
considered too short to apply the leg so as to 
use the natural knee, will be found sufficient 
for perfect use of the new leg. 
The short stumps gain in base of support, for what they 
lack in leverage, performing admirably in the Safety-Socket. 
It should be borne in mind that the entire mechan- 
ism is not the same in all cases. Some stumps need 
parts different from others ; the absence of a principle 
should not be regarded a departure from the patent. 
The eleven new principles patented are for all the 
various forms of legs, both above and below the knee, and do 
not all go into a single leg. 
The small cut shows the stump as it appears in the Safety- 
Socket. The end expands, by the natural muscular action, 
and from a pointed shape becomes round and full, as seen. 
A bed of muscles and tissues is made for the nerves and 
bones to rest in. The elastic socket clasps the end as gently 
as can be done with the hands, and with positive comfort. 34 
THE SAFETY-SOCKET A SUCCESS IN 1872. 
When thoroughly satisfied of the soundness of the new 
theory, based upon my own use of the Safety-Socket, in the 
year 1872,1 too well knew that the sufferer, having a sensi- 
tive stump, would not accept the whole truth at once on my 
individual assertion; hence I deferred my own statement till 
I had the corroborative evidence of many others. In May, 
1872, I applied the socket to a farmer. 
Here is his statement, after giving the new leg the severest 
trial on the farm: 
October 15, 1872. 
Hr. B. F. Palmer. 
Fairfield, Adams Co., Pa., 
Dear Sir:—l have worn your leg for 
ten years with great satisfaction. The 
improvement in the new leg you have 
made for me, taking the weight on the end 
of the stump, I like. I find it does well 
in use on the farm, and recommend it for 
any stump. I wish the Safety-Socket 
put into my other leg. 
Yours, truly, John M. Musselman, 
Farmer in Safety-Socket 
Leavittsburg, Ohio, March, 1873. 
Hear Sir:—When you told me I 
could bear my weight on the stump, I 
did not believe it possible, but I now 
walk with great comfort and ease, and 
hear my weight on the end. I feel as if 
walking on the sole of my foot. My stump 
now is warm and has a natural feeling 
as the result of this new use, which I 
have not before enjoyed. I regard the 
invention as one of incalculable value. 
Yours, truly, John Bratton. 
Balancing in Safety- 
Socket. 35 
CASES BELOW THE KNEE. 
Wilmington, Delaware, Aug. 11, 1878. 
Dr. D. E, Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—You wish me to inform you of my success in 
the use of your Patent legs. The first one I had you made 
for me in July, 1864. In a very short time I was enabled to 
walk far beyond my highest expectations, and hut few other 
than those who knew of my loss had the remotest idea of it. 
WTien I heard of the “stump support,” or “Safety-Socket ” 
you had introduced, and had it explained, I concluded to 
give it a trial, from the fact that my stump was so short 
(2-| inches), I wanted all the purchase I could get. It is the 
best improvement in artificial legs extant. I walk better, with 
more ease, feel more comfortable than without it. My lame- 
ness is scarcely perceptible. Ido not think too much can be 
said of it. Sir, it is a success. When I think of the comfort, 
ease and confidence I have, coupled with the naturalness of 
the step, I am astonished and can say with sincerity, that the 
leg with Safety-Socket is the only true principle. I have 
more of the natural feeling restored than I ever expected to 
again feel. Whether the world considers the new adjust- 
ment practicable or not, henceforth 1 will wear the Safety-Socket. 
Yours, truly, 
W. R. HODGrSOY, Attorney-at-Law. 
SHORT AND TENDER STUMP BELOW KNEE. 
Jersey City, Aug. 7,1873. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—You wish to know how I get along with my 
new leg. I must say it was got up in good shape, and feels 
easy. I rest all my weight on the end of the stump. 
Yours, truly, 
M. H. YEAR, Machinist. 
Yotb.—This case is one of special importance. Mr. Year 
is engaged in work that requires him on his feet all day. 36 
Dear Sir :—I have found that I can bear my whole weight 
easily upon the end of the stump. I find no inconvenience—l 
walk with much more comfort, and at the same time feel 
more natural. I feel that your improvement is a decided 
success, and will prove the greatest comfort to those who are 
obliged to use an artificial limb, not only in walking, but 
there is greater comfort while seated to have the end of the 
limb resting upon such a socket as you have prepared. 
Your friend, 
JOS. K. GOTWALS, 
August 12,1873. Supt. of Schools, Norristown, Pa. 
Sinibar, Missouri, August 20, 1878. 
Dr, Palmer. 
My Dear Sir :—I have just received the leg, and find I 
can step with my full weight on the end of the stump. Yon are 
aware that I am—will say, was—one of the unbelievers, for 
I believed my stump wouldn’t stand the pressure. 
Put now, as I have the leg on, and find it does not chafe or 
irritate, my expectations are high. I anticipate great comfort 
in walking. 
My old Palmer did so well that I could not expect much 
improvement. lam highly gratified. 
Yours, truly, 
S. J. ANDREWS. 
Columbia, Missouri, August 13,1873. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—The leg you sent me a short time since, came 
duly to hand. It will do well. I will write you again soon. 
Yours, respectfully, 
N". W. WILSON". 
Note.—Col. W., was recommended to me by the Chief 
Examiner of Surgical Apparatus at the U. S. Patent Office, 
while my patent was pending, in April, 1873, on account of 
the obvious and great improvement seen by him in the exami- 
nation. He declined to receive legs made by others, oftered as 
gifts, and paid the full price for this new Patent. 37 
LETTER OF P. B. SPR AGUE, Esq. 
Winterset, lowa, April 11,1874. 
Ur. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—As I notice that you have mentioned me in 
your hook, and ventured to refer to me before seeing me, or 
knowing the condition of my stump, I think that I ought to 
publish my case. 
My leg was amputated in June last, and my stump is still 
in bad condition, as a troublesome nerve was left exposed 
just on the point of a small bone, which I supposed must be 
removed by a second operation, also small pieces of bone had 
come out recently, so that the end was not quite sound on fit- 
ting the substitute, and it was so tender and troublesome at 
the point of the nerve that I feared to touch it, and had made 
a tube to cover and protect it, as the touch of the end of a 
finger even would cause me to start with pain. I did not 
think it would do to walk upon, or even touch the end. So 
fearful was I, that I objected at first to a trial, but on your 
advice I allowed you to put in the Safety-Socket, when you 
assured me it could be graduated so as not possibly to do 
harm. I was astonished to find it an actual comfort in walk- 
ing or sitting. Its gentle touch had a soothing effect (like 
the soft pressure of the hand upon the entire end and not 
upon a point), by keeping the blood from pressing there, and 
by preventing pulling upon the sides and over the end,so that 
positive comfort was at once found in it that could not be had 
by pressure in the usual way, as lat first tried the leg. It is 
wonderfully adapted to, and just the thing for a tender 
stump, and I am so delighted with it that I shall be happy 
to answer any correspondents who may wish to write to me, 
as I can in that way best assure them and you of my appre- 
ciation of the blessing which exceeds all my 
highest hope. 
I wish you to make and send to me a second 
leg, to have the bearing on the end, as Ifind it 'per- 
fectly comfortable, while pressure on the sides is 
not. I could not think of being without it for 
one hour. Please find check for $3OO. 
Yours truly, 
Stump and 
Safety-Socket as applied 
P. B. SPRAGUE, 
Merchant. 38 
CASES BELOW KNEE. 
LETTER OF DR. GEO. H. TAYLOR. 
Mobile, Alabama, March 23,1874. 
Dr. Palmer, 
Dear Sir ;—The leg arrived in perfect order two days 
before your letter, and I must say it is the best I have ever 
had, and I have had good ones, I like the Safety-Socket and 
would not be without it, as it is much more comfortable than I 
imagined it could possibly be. I feel no inconvenience what- 
ever, and am delighted with it. I Hope all your patients 
will think like myself. 
You can refer any one to me, and I will take pleasure in 
convincing them that your limb is perfect. 
Your most obedient servant, 
GEO. H. TAYLOR. 
WAR DEPARTMENT. 
Surgeon General’s Office, 
Army Medical Museum, 
Washington, D. C., April 8,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Sir ;—I fully realize all my expectations with the new leg. 
The contrast is so great from the artificial limbs I have 
formerly worn, that I feel almost as if walking with the natural 
leg. This is due not alone, to the Safety-Socket, but also to 
the lightness of the leg, and the perfect fit. lam surprised 
to think that I bore the agony of the other legs so long, but I 
supposed they were all alike. I have worn four other different 
maker’s legs during the last ten years. The Safety-Socket 
is superior to any and all. I keep it on day and evening, a 
thing I could never do before with any degree of comfort. 
I can walk without slinging the leg. 
Respectfully, 
ROBT. H. WHITE. 
Note.—Mr. White presents an interesting and important 
case, coming,as he does, from the Surgeon General’s Bureau, 
where he holds an important position and may be seen or 
written to for imformation 39 
BOTH LEGS OFF JUST BELOW KNEES. 
Philadelphia & Reading Rail Road. 
Palo Alto, Pa., April 21,1874, 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—I have now worn three pairs of your Patent 
legs. You will recollect that both of my legs are off about 
one and a half inches below the knees. 
I put on the first pair of your legs in 
1858, and wore them till 1864, when I got 
the second pair, on which I have walked 
and worked, at hard labor, about polish- 
ing the engines, &c., &c., ever since, till a 
short time ago, when I put on the new 
Patent legs, with Safety-Sockets. The 
first legs were a great blessing to me, as 
all my friends know. My house is some 
distance from my place of duty, and on a 
rough, hilly road, but I have walked to 
and from it daily, and can go five or six 
miles. 
PALMER’S PATENT 
On these legs I have been in the constant 
employ of the P. & R. R. R. Co., and have 
been able to support a family of eleven 
children. The ends of my stumps have 
-1- V J. 
been tender, and I never thought I could safely have any- 
thing touch them; but, to my great joy, I now put my entire 
weight on them in the Safety-Sockets with perfect comfort. 
I can put my weight on either one of them without the 
least unpleasant feeling ; and the walking, which on the old 
legs wTas possible, is now pleasant. I can unloose the top 
socket, so as to relieve my thighs, and I feel as if really on 
my feet again. 
Two Palmer Legs. 
The ends of the stumps feel warm and natural. I find 
myself unable to express all the gratitude I feel for your 
great invention and real kindness to me. 
Yours, truly, 
JAMES Me El. EYE Y. 40 
BOTH LEGS AMPUTATED. 
Missoula, Montana, July 8,1873. 
Dear Sir ;—I was so unfortunate as to freeze my feet, and an 
amputation of both legs, below the knees, became necessary. 
JBeing so far away in the wilderness, I 
never dreamt then of having my loss 
made up by artificial limbs, but walked 
5 years on my knees. An article, writ- 
ten by Dr. 0. W. Holmes, in the Atlantic 
Monthly (a copy of which came acci- 
dently into my possession,) regarding 
the “ Palmer Limbs,” awakened in me a 
keen desire to try a pair, and I wrote to 
Dr. Palmer about it and sent the first 
$lOO, notwithstanding that all my 
friends were laughing at me for such 
foolishness. But the limbs came and I 
soon learned to use them. I could not 
straighten out the stumps, but the use of 
these limbs and a little exertion soon 
set them right. I have worn the artifi- 
cial legs now about seven years, and no 
repairs up to this time have been neces- 
"D ' 
3> 
r~ 
2 
m 
co 
~v 
> 
rn 
21 
—\ 
sary. I left Montana Territory in July, 1869, per steamship 
“ Main ” for Berlin, Prussia. While in Berlin I worked 
several months in the Technical Bureau of L. Schwarzkoppf s 
Locomotive works, employment which required me to stand 
the whole day after climbing 2 pair of stairs, yet I never 
missed an hour to perform my work, and my new limbs felt 
quite natural, nor did any one suspect, unless told of it, that 
I used any other than natural legs. 
Two Palmer Leers. 
Crossing the ocean, I travelled around the hurricane decks of 
the steamers without any cane, as the officers of those steamers 
can testify. In coming through the dreaded Bitter Root 
Mountains, from Montana to Oregon, I was several times 
compelled to walk up, or, rather, climb up steep ascents, where 
our horses could scarcely pull up the empty 'wagons. The 
Patent Socket is a valuable improvement. 
CHARLES SHAFT. 41 
UNEXAMPLED FEATS, ON PALMER LEGS, WITH BOTH 
FEET AMPUTATED. 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, July, 1878 
Dr B. F. Palmer 
Sir :—I have done 
three things on a pair of 
your legs worth men- 
tioning. 
You will recollect that 
I lost both of my legs 
in the war, below my 
knees, and have worn 
yours since 1862. The 
last pair are the greatest 
success. I said I had 
done three things. I 
walked in the presence 
of the Surgeon-General 
so well that he could not 
tell that I had lost a leg, 
and he called in some 
men to see me perform, 
and no one guessed I 
had lost both legs. I 
built a house, in this place, 
Skating on two Palmer Legs. 
doing all the carpenter work myself, in the time it usually 
takes a good carpenter. I have won the palm as a skater— 
both on ice and on parlor skates—in the presence of great crowds. 
Yours, gratefully, 
FERNANDO PAGE. 
Austin, Nevada, June 10,1873. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer, 
Dear Sir:—The leg you sent for John Whatley arrived 
some time since in perfect order. It tits perfectly. He ap- 
pears well pleased—and he should. 
Yours, truly, 
M. W. WIXOM, M. D. 42 
THE CHIEF OF A GREAT TRIBE—LA FLESCHE. 
This brave Chief relinquished his 
power as the ruler ot his people, to 
learn the useful arts of Civilization 
and Peace. Once in a year he goes on 
the great hunt with his people, when 
he assumes some of the costume of a 
Chief of his tribe. 
Omaha Mission, Feb., Oct. 8,1878. 
Hear Sir;— The Chief, La Fleschb, 
is anxious to go with his people on 
the hunt to obtain skins for mocca- 
sins and robes, sometime this month. 
If he does not get his new leg, he will 
go on his old Palmer leg, which he has 
worn many years. 
Chief on Palmer Log. 
Nov. 24,1873. 
Hear Sir;— The Leg was received in good order. The 
Chief tried it on, and was pleased after a trial of it. He 
now leaves for the hunt on the Safety-Socket Leg. 
Yours, truly, 
WM. HAMILTON", Missionary. 
CAPT. ¥M, C. GALLAGHER, 
Pittsburgh, Hec. 27, 1878. 
Hr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Hear Sir:—l am happy to be able to inform you that lam 
well pleased with my new leg, and feel satisfied. 
I can walk so well on the end of my stump that I would 
like to have the Safety-Socket put in my other leg. 
I remain, yours truly, 
19 Water Street, Pittsburg, Pa. 
WM, C. GALLAGHER. 
Hr. B. Frank. Palmkr. 
Carthage, N. C., Feb. 2,1874. 
Hear Sir :—The leg you sent me came to hand in due 
time. lam very well satisfied with it, I wTalk with a great 
deal more ease than I could with the other one I had. 
Yours truly, G. A. McRAE. 43 
THE HOIST. JUDGE CHOISELAT, 
Paris, France. 
Dear Sir;—M. Choiselat, of Paris, at 
first made use of two pegs; but with such 
APPLIANCES HIS PUBLIC CAREER WAS AT AN 
END ; THE DIUNITY OF THE ERMINE FITTED 
ILL THE MIEN OF WOODEN LEGS. He HOW 
walks marvellously. He recently walked 
three miles without assistance, and with 
little fatigue. This gentleman has offered 
to come before the Society of Surgeons, to 
testify hy his success to the adaptability of 
your invention to the upper third of the 
leg-* 
Judge Choiselat. 
attempts every year, and seen him frequently. 
I have carefully noticed Judge Choiselat’s 
He PREFERS THE PALMER LIMB TO ALL OTHERS IN EVERY RESPECT. 
Before witnessing this experiment, our colleagues had a 
great predilection for French appliances. 
Accept the assurance of my distinguished consideration. 
M. DEBOUT, Sec. Societc De Chirurgie, Paris. 
HON. JUDGE BBOOKINGS, 
President of the Dakota Southern R. R. Company, 
Judge Brookings lost both legs at the same point as Judge 
Choiselat. He has worn Palmer legs sixteen years, and now 
takes off a good pair to put on the new Patent. 
Office of the Dakota Southern Rail Road Company. 
Dr. B. Frank Palmer. 
Yankton, Dakota, April 10,1874. 
Dear Sir ;—I enclose check for two hundred and fifty-five 
dollars ($255), balance due you for the new Patent legs, I 
send you two customers from here that have been to see how 
mine work. There are large numbers of one-legged men 
here, and I shall be your advertiser. 
Yours, truly 
W. W. BROOKINGS 
*The Palmer legs made in 1856, were worn by Judge Choiselat until the year 1869, when 
he remitted $3OO to Dr Palmer for a second pair of legs, which were sent to Paris, from 
Philadelphia. In 1873 he applied the Safety-Socket, with grand success. 44 
NEW PALMER LEG, ABOVE KNEE 
The success of the New Patent 
Leg above the knee is equally gratify- 
ing with those applied below the 
knee. I now present letters received 
from prominent men, who have for 
many years worn the Original Patent 
without the new mechanism, and now 
walk in the safety-socket. These gen- 
tlemen were all so pleased with the 
first Palmer Leg, as to think it could 
not he improved. For this reason 
their testimony is more valuable. 
The following important statement 
of Jos, E. Goodman, Esq., who gal- 
lantly lost his leg in the great war, is 
Walking in Safety-Socket. 
entitled to special attention 
Mr. Goodman is a brother of the distinguished Dr. H. 
Earnest Goodman, President of the Board of Pension Ex- 
amining Surgeons in Philadelphia. Dr. Goodman has in- 
spected all patent legs made in Philadelphia, on U. S. order, 
and is familiar with the whole subject. He was among the 
first of the prominent medical gentlemen of the city to 
recognize the great value of the new mechanism, and the 
correctness of the new method of walking. He advised the 
application. 
LETTER OF JOS. E. GOODMAN, Esq. 
In the year 1863,1 lost my left leg in the great war, within 
two and a half inches of the hip-joint. In 1864,1 first applied 
the Palmer leg. In the year 1871, I put on the new leg, 
made by Dr. Palmer, and have worn it with the utmost satisfac- 
tion to the present time. 
Learning recently of the great success of the Patent 
Safety-Socket for support on the end of the stump, I got 
Dr. Palmer to apply this leg. I find the Safety-Socket per- 
fectly comfortable, and a great aid in walking. I move without 
the stump sinking down under the weight, and find my gait 
very much improved. I recommend the new leg strongly, as 
being the best in use. 
JOS. E. GOODMAN, 
Philadelphia, July 1, 1873. No. 3416 Race Street. 45 
SEVERE TEST OF THE SAFETY-SOCKET ABOVE KNEE. 
South Easton, Pa., July 8, 1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer, 
Dear Sir ;—I give you an account of my trials of the new 
leg with the Safety-Socket. My right leg is off within about 
four inches of the hip-joint, and I first put on your leg in 1858. 
The first leg I wore for fourteen years, with the utmost satis- 
faction. 
I find this leg much superior to the first. I thought it 
an utter impossibility, in my case, to support any amount of 
weight on the end, but looking at your socket, and learning how 
a man walks in it, and noticing its elasticity, I had no hesi- 
tation in trying the leg; I instantly walked with positive 
pleasure. After walking a half hour, I went into the street 
and walked fifteen squares (nearly two miles), and then up 
three flights of stairs, in my hotel. 
In ascending the stairs, my patent foot 
slipped from a stair, at a sharp turn, and 
dropped down to the next stair, with my 
full weight on the end of the stump. The 
jar was great, and I thought I must 
have burst the Safety-Socket,though there 
was not the least unpleasant feeling of the 
stump. I found no harm done. The 
stump now feels warm and natural, as it 
never did before, and the nervous pains 
which I had have all disappeared. 
The leverage is immensely improved, and 
I walk with intense pleasure, without any 
aid but this Safety-Socket. I have stood 
on the end of my stump, and when my other foot was 
raised from the floor, I have lifted a man who weighed two 
hundred pounds, in a seat weighing about fifty pounds—say a 
weight of two hundred and fifty pounds. 
Truly and gratefully yours, 
JOHN W. ECKERT. 46 
A PALMER LEG ON THE GRAND TOUR. 
147 Fifth Avenue, New York, Aug. 1,1873. 
My Dear Sir :—1 find pleasure in giving you this state- 
ment. I lost my leg, above the knee, when a small boy, and 
purchased a Palmer leg in the year 1872, when I was about 
to start for a year’s tour. 
I travelled on this leg over Europe, Asia, and a part of 
Africa. On the bleak hills of Palestine, and along the rough 
paths of the Arabs, it never failed me. I ascended the Pyr- 
amids and high mountains, and was going constantly for a 
full year, when I reached Paris. There I sought the best 
mechanician, to get some small repairs. He was astonished 
at what the leg had done, feared to attempt the slight re- 
pairs, and advised me to go to London. I went to the only 
famous leg-maker in London, and he, too, admitted the excel- 
lence of the leg, but thought he could suit me as well. He 
made me one of his best English legs, for which I paid thirty 
guineas, but it was so inferor that I only wore it a few hours, 
preferring the Palmer leg when out of repair, to this new 
London leg. I find your new leg much superior to the former 
patent, I put my whole weight on the end of the stump, 
and simply feel a pleasant pressure. There is no mechanism 
that will compare with the new Palmer Patent. 
Yours, truly, 
F. 0. LAURANCE, Jr. 
Peoria, Illinois, August 26, 1873. 
Dr. D. F, Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—The leg was duly received and works well. 
The Safety-Socket is a decided improvement. There is a 
pleasantness with it that will make it a success. It keeps 
the stump from the sides of the limb. lam satisfied. 
Yours, truly, JOHN J. JACK. 
Hollidaysburg, Penn’a., August 12, 1873. 
Dear Sir :—I have been wearing the new leg all the time 
since first jputting on. I can walk firmer in it than in the 
other form of socket. The leg swings well, is precisely the 
right length, and fits neatly around the thigh. 
Respectfully, D. M. JONES. 
Col. Jones had worn my leg (above knee) 6 years. 47 
CASES ABOVE KNEE. 
Springfield Mines, Blair Co., Pa., August 11, 1878. 
Bear Sir The leg I purchased of you came two weeks 
ago, and I must say that it proved a complete disappoint- 
ment (but very agreeable). 
I did not think it could be made so accurate without the 
patient being with you. He can stand his whole weight on the 
end and walk almost as well as with the natural leg. It is 
complete in every particular. 
Yours, 
very respectfully, 
S. B. ISENBERG. 
Office of Geo. 
Grattan, Att’y at Law, 
Br. B. F. Palmer. 
Harrisonburg, Ya., June 4, 1873. 
Bear Sir ;—Please make me a first-class leg, with your 
new mechanism and Safety-Socket. Send by express. I want 
the new improvement in your leg, with the end support. lam 
not afraid to try it, and have great faith in the result. 
June 28, 1873. 
Bear Sir ;—My new leg is at hand. I have given it a 
trial, and it works ivell. 
Yours, truly, in haste, 
GEO. G. GRATTAN, 
NEW PALMER LEG ABOVE KNEE. 
It will be noticed that the mechanism 
is still kept within the leg, as it was in the 
original Patent, and that the beautiful 
form which nature sometimes presents is 
equalled by art. The sculptor is able to 
copy the natural beauty of the human leg 
in white marble. I have made it a study to 
do the same in white willow. The cut 
here presented is a correct likeness of my 
model leg of recent make, which is so perfect 
as to have induced those who could not 
make the model or the cut, to copy and ap- 
propriate them to their uses, and in their 
publications. 
External view. 48 
OLD PALMER LEG ABOVE KNEE: 
A cut of the original Patent Leg, full 
length, is shown, to enable the reader to notice 
the important changes made in the mechan- 
ism. In the original leg a spring is seen in 
the foot—-another spring in the knee. Both 
are avoided in the new leg, and their func- 
tions supplied, by improved springs and ten- 
dons. Various other changes will be seen in 
the mechanism. The tendons and springs 
being set in duplicate, will last about twice 
as long as if single, and they are so arranged 
as to be easily reached and repaired. A per- 
son may have no fear of any serious accident 
to the new leg. 
Patent 1846. 
NEW LEG AND SAFETY-SOCKET ABOVE KNEE. 
The cut, a sectional view, with open- 
ings, gives a good view of the me- 
chanism and Safety-Socket in the new 
Patent Leg, as applied above the knee. 
It is essentially the same employed in 
all cases here presented, only modified to 
suit the varied requirements of different 
amputations. 
Sometimes the Patent Socket rests on 
the top rim of the leg (in case of a short 
stump); in other cases, it rests on, or is 
attached to a point lower down (in case 
of a long stump.) This is the case both 
below and above the knee. 
The Safety-Socket is perforated all 
over with holes to ventilate and keep 
the stump healthy and cool. 
The exceeding simplicity of the new 
Patent leg is seen at a glance. 
New Patent, 1873. 49 
More than a year has elapsed since I commenced using the 
new Patent Leg and Safety-Socket in person, and within this 
time I have made many Legs for my patients, and find much 
to add to my first announcement of the new advance in the 
art. A year ago, I wrote faithfully of what I had suffered, 
seen, felt, and enjoyed, during the time since my leg was 
amputated, and at that time gave nothing but the simple 
facts in the strange matter of losing (for thirty-eight years) 
the use of my knee joint, then straightening and using it, 
and walking on the sensitive end of a tender stump. I could 
scarcely credit my own senses, or the statements as they ap- 
peared in print, and have proceeded cautiously in apply- 
ing the legs, and in using my own, as a man proceeds who is 
feeling his way on strange ground in the dark. 
Can so strange a thing he ? Am I justified in encouraging 
my patients to make what seems to them so bold a 
venture, in trying to do what has so long seemed to be an 
impossibility ? I have kept on searching for facts, always 
inquiring with solicitude for my patients, despite the accu- 
mulated evidences all showing happy results. I had put at 
stake my reputation, in advancing a theory too strange and 
too comforting for general belief, and had certainly placed 
my person in peril, if the theory was unsound. I had without 
aid and against advice performed a surgical operation without 
precedent, as eminent surgeons assure me, by putting a stiff 
joint, its rigid muscles and sensitive nerves, to a strain and 
tension which great physicians thought hazardous, and I 
had coupled with the surgical operation a mechanical exper- 
iment, new and startling, which set at defiance all the logic 
of the best informed mechanicians in the art, wTas beyond 
the belief of intelligent wearers of false legs, and wholly at 
variance with the established theories of eminent surgeons 
and anatomists. The surgical and mechanical experiment, 
combined and tried together, at a time when the knee, so 
long stiff, had been only 'partially extended, and was in poor 
condition for such a trial, (if the trial could ever be allowa- 
ble,) seemed, I admit, more like the perilous hardihood of a 
novice, or the fretwork of a dreamer, than like a well-directed 
effort which should disclose new and important truths in 
surgical science and compensatory art. 
In all I have done, or written, I have not trusted to my 50 
own senses, or my personal feelings, in making public state- 
ments, only when my own experience has fully accorded with 
that of others, concerning the new mode of walking on the 
end of the stump. 
In straighteningthe knee—-which, as I have said, had been 
fully bent and stiff for thirty-eight years—I found and know 
of no parallel case. I have no doubt that hundreds similarly 
bent, may be straightened and used, as my case cannot be an 
exceptional one in possibilities. 
As I have given the points of most interest in this matter 
in a former article, I will at this time dwell more upon the 
result, in the general treatment of my patients during the 
year, by the new method, than upon the facts already 
recorded, glancing, as I pass, at the great duty and respon- 
sibility of the surgeon in his work. 
Amputation has been said to be the bane of a humane pro- 
fession. In view of its entailed consequences in the past, it 
may well be so considered. It has not been so much the 
want of the part severed, that has made it so great an afflic- 
tion, as the life-long presence of the sensitive and trouble- 
some part of the limb remaining. So morbidly sensitive does 
the stump become, that the sufferer shields it as he would 
his eyeball. Several stout men who are now walking with 
pleasure on the end of stumps that were most sensitive, 
actually jumped up, as if in pain, at a motion of the hand towards 
the stump which had not been touched, and yet, the next minute 
they stood with positive comfort on the end in the Safety- 
Socket, again startled at witnessing the fact. 
Is it, really, strange that nature, when properly aided by 
Art and Science, should disclose the perfection of her work, 
which always is perfect? There is a balm for the wound 
humanly inflicted by the surgeon’s knife, and there is no 
necessity for carrying a sensitive end of an amputated leg, 
or arm, and nursing its tenderness through life. The time 
has come when surgical science and compensatory art join 
with Hature to save from pain in the once fearful operation, 
and from its most fearful consequences. With a suitable 
mechanical device applied, the end of the stump is found to be 
as good a point of .support as any other portion of the leg. If 
this were not so, ISTature would be found inferior and subser- 
vient to Art, which can never be. "While a wound is unhealed, 51 
whether it be the scratch of a finger, or the cicatrix of a 
severed leg, the member is unsound in the part, and should 
not be used; but when the wound is healed and the part sound, 
Nature has made good the living part of her mechanism to 
the last particle. The new formation partakes of the nature of 
the tissues and texture of the old, and whether the parts be 
osseous, muscular, membranous or nervous, the portion sup- 
plied is complete in its texture and union, and ready for use. 
But a new condition of a member involves and discloses a 
new mechanical want. The shoe, which the skill of ages has 
brought to some perfection for the foot, while it suggests the 
receptacle needed for the new-made foot (the end of the 
stump) is not suited to the new want, either in its plan or 
formation. The hard sole and soft sides of the shoe must be 
reversed in the combination, or principle. The bottom, or 
end of the Socket, must be elastic and flexible, the muscles 
must be grasped, just above, and held firmly over and around 
the end of the stump, so as to form a dense and compact 
muscular cushion. Here was found a great mechanical diffi- 
culty when the new method was first tried. It required much 
patient perseverance to ascertain, and more to produce the 
right thing, which was at last found and introduced with 
charming effect. Nature now reasserts her dominion in 
again showing the utility of all portions of her animate 
mechanism. Science and Art come in as subsidiary helpers, 
when a limb has received a wound, both in healing and in 
the act of reparation. The bane which was so long and so 
terribly felt by the mutilated, while compensatory art was 
in its infancy, now yields to the antidote, which Science and 
Art disclose, and the future of the sufferer becomes bright in 
the happy blending of the two professions. The stump, I 
repeat, becomes, in proper use, a perfect part of a perfect 
whole; hence the mutilated member is good in every portion 
that remains. It is simply shortened, and a part gone, which 
should be supplied as soon as the stump becomes sound— 
always within a few months, and often in a few weeks. 
The eminent Professors in the great Jefferson College, 
Philadelphia, have amputated patients in the presence of 
their classes, to apply the Palmer leg, and, in some instances, 
have presented the same patients walking perfectly, before 
the same classes, within five weeks from the day of amputa- 52 
tion. The reader will be aware that such eminent Surgeons 
as Professor Pancoast (who was the great compeer of Prof. 
Mutter, and his colleague of former days), and other very 
distinguished men now operating in the Jefferson College, 
know what is safe and proper in the application of false 
limbs, as well as in amputating the natural members ; and I 
allude to this fact in their practice to show that, in the matter 
of time, I have the support of the ablest surgeons in assert- 
ing that the stump is ready for use as soon as healed; usually 
in a season ranging from four to twelve weeks. It is really 
important to freely use the end of the stump as soon as it is 
sound, but not before the muscles have formed their new 
union and combination over the end completely, as sloughing 
would ensue if the parts were put to strain and tension pre- 
maturely. At the time when Nature completes the healing 
of the wound humanly inflicted by the surgeon, the Surgeon- 
Artist, knowing the location, condition, and function of 
every bone, muscle, tendon, nerve and artery, and all the- 
complications of tissues and integuments, newly-woven 
over the end of the stump, should begin his work with 
caution and consummate skill. Let this be done surgically 
and artistically and the great wonder in the future shall be— 
not that the new method is the true one, but rather that it has 
taken so many years to arrive at a little practical knowledge 
on the important subject, and so many centuries to produce a 
mechanical aid, which is so obviously the only thing really 
adapted to the want—the true means adapted to the end. 
Art is long, but its progress is sure. The Human Wheel 
rolls on, each felloe making a foot-print in progression. 
I have now to record a success surpassing all my previous 
trials of the Patent Safety-Socket, in the case of Sprague, 
alluded to on page 4, who has the very tenderest stump 
ever treated by me. Mr. Sprague upon ordering the second 
leg (having discovered the great value of the new method), 
said to me : “ Make this one just as you think best, without 
regard to my former suggestions and fears.” I, at once, 
decided to put the leg on without side-joints, avoiding all pres- 
sure above the knee—as he has a stump about eight inches 
long. This would not do in his case, without the Safety- 
Socket, as he cannot bear jndling upon the end. I applied 
the leg, and he remained to give it a good trial. He 53 
authorized me to give an account of the success, and refer to 
him, saying that he will write to all who address him. This 
last act, and proposition, are very generous, as will be seen 
when I inform the reader that he has paid me three hundred 
dollars for two legs, and makes this proposal as an earnest of 
his appreciation of the service, and his good will to his 
fellows who need the appliance. 
Mr. Sprague has walked fifteen squares (over a mile), with 
only a small cane in his hand, and with his weight, as he 
assures me, almost wholly on the end. He states that any 
amount of walking does not hurt his stump, or the nerve, 
but the moment the Socket is taken off, and the blood 
presses to the end, it feels uncomfortable, though it is daily 
improving. He came here expressly to have the nerve re- 
moved by a surgeon, but he has assured me that there is 
now no need for it. I shall take care that he shall not be 
less happy in the use of the leg as time rolls on, than he is 
in starting off. 
It is pleasant to receive such patronage, beyond the usual 
satisfaction in a business way. There is, in this case, and 
the case of Mr. Taylor, who sent him to me, and who twenty- 
eight years ago put on the first Palmer leg, a singular coin- 
cidence, concerning the two cases. When making the first 
leg, to apply below the knee, I was impressed with the belief 
that, when practicable, the Patent leg should not go above 
the knee to encumber the thigh, and cause a diminution of the 
muscles that needed development. Then, not having the 
experience which taught that there must be numerous excep- 
tions to that sound rule, I put that leg on a stump, four 
inches long, without side-joints, and he so wore it for many 
years, until he left it with me. 14 have shown it to Mr. 
Sprague, whose second leg is made with the same idea, on 
the same plan, but with the addition of the Patent Socket. 
The following letter, just received from Mr. Taylor, com- 
pletes the evidence. 
Winterset, lowa, May 3, 1874. 
Hr. Palmer. 
Hear Sir :—Mr. Sprague has returned and I am delighted 
with his success. I now want the Safety-Socket Leg. (See 
pages 4 and 37.) Yours, truly, 
A. H. TAYLOR. 54 
To show the cause of my delay in making this progress 
in the art, I must again allude to my own experience. The 
surgeon had not before amputated a leg, and had no thought 
beyond saving life, and such portions of the leg as might 
be retained, not as a means of walking, as there was no 
artificial leg known to him, but simply as a part of the 
human organism to he carried about tenderly on crutches. 
It was properly bent at the knee to heal, but when healed 
was not straightened as it should have been—hence perma- 
nent stiffness of the knee joint followed. The bent knee 
forbade an attempt at using the end for thirty-eight years, 
when, as stated in another article, I straightened the joint, 
and in extending it, found the great secret in the surgical and 
mechanical art. 
I supposed that the great surgeons who had given attention 
to the subject possessed the best knowledge of the condition 
of the stump, and, as no one of them ever had published such 
a possibility, or spoken of it to me, either in this country or 
Europe, it was not strange that I should accept their belief, 
and while in no condition to try a new method, act upon 
the best principles before known, especially as my own 
limb was excessively tender. 
In order to place this matter in its true light and satisfy 
the general reader, who naturally looks to the Surgeon for 
some advice, it is proper here to show that the opinion now 
advanced is not in conflict with the march of progress in the 
art, and not at variance with the course it has taken in all 
the past. 
The great Surgeon Pare, and his colleagues in the sixteenth 
century, while recognizing, in pain and mortification, the 
lack of skill requisite in treating their amputated patients, 
did nevertheless yield their opinions, and shape their prac- 
tice to the condition of the art, then barbarously handled, 
and from that time till the present the maker of limbs has 
been answerable for the place of election in amputations. 
To fully establish this fact, it is only necessary to say that 
in the year 1851,1 was invited to Paris by the great Surgeons 
Roux and Lallemand, whom I met in London at the first 
Great Exhibition, and that I was by them and by M. Debout 
introduced to the Socicte de Chirurgie, the most learned 
Surgical Society in the world, to give evidence of my claim 55 
as an inventor, and as the author of new rules for amputa- 
tion. I presented to the Society my models and specification 
with the new rules for operating which had been accepted 
in this country in 1846. A committee of the most eminent 
surgeons of the world was appointed to examine and report 
upon my invention, and the new rules. This committee spent 
more than twelve years in the investigation of two great 
questions, concerning amputations and limbs, and reported at 
great length, fully confirming my views and adopting my 
mechanism. 
Among the great surgeons who then examined and pro- 
nounced upon my invention, were Baron Larrey, M. Velpeau, 
M. Debout, M. Roux, M. Lallemand, of Paris; Sir Benj. C. 
Brodie, Sir ¥m, Pergusson, and Sir ¥m. Lawrence, of 
London; Profs. Mott, Parker, Mutter, Pancoast, Warren, 
Bigelow, and others of the United States. 
Abstract of the Report of the Societe de Chirurgie of 
Paris, on Artificial Limbs and Amputations. 
The old Surgeons in their art, 
always knew the end which they 
were pursuing, and did not hesi- 
tate to introduce, in its develop- 
ment, everything which could con- 
duce to that end. Accordingly, 
the investigation of remedies for 
mutilations figures in their works 
equally with the loss of members, 
and that too at a time when me- 
chanical knowledge could only fur- 
nish the crudest attempts for this 
branch of surgical therapeutics. 
In time of Pai6. 
Let us take, for example, the designs furnished us by 
Ambrose Pare, the most complete of all authors, in this 
respect. Row that the 'progress of the mechanic arts has fur- 
nished, unquestionable aid,, and can produce something better, 56 
all these notions have disappeared from our medical litera- 
ture. Let a surgeon be consulted in regard to treating the sim- 
plest amputation, and he knows not what to advise, for he is 
ignorant both of the trials which have been made, and the state of 
art in what especially concerns this point. The surgeon is forced 
to send his patients for advice to the makers of artificial limbs, 
and to give them up to their attempts. Still there is a gap 
which must be filled; and we have not failed to make men- 
tion of the most important objects exhibited by inventors. 
An important question, whose 
solution has been long sought, is 
that of the services which auto- 
matic appliances can render to those 
who have lost limbs. Despite the 
special works published on this 
point of practical surgery, the truth 
is far from having been determined 
in all respects. Thus, notwithstand- 
ing the greater danger to the invalid 
from amputation at the place of elec- 
tion, surgeons do not hesitate to 
prefer it to amputation at the in- 
ferior third, in the case of the 
young and the poor. 
This is the judgment formed by Velpeau, in 1839, in his 
Treatise on Surgery, and which he repeated, in 1841, in his 
report to the Academy of Medicine upon the memoire of 
Messrs. Arnal and Ferd. Martin. We thought that the 
numerous examples of the service rendered since that period, 
had led surgeons to no longer make any distinction between 
rich patients and those not possessed of a fortune. We see, 
with regret, that it is not so; and that, as in the time of 
Ambrose Pare, the principles of surgery are sacrificed to the 
facility of making the patient walk on the peg. The ad- 
vance, taken by automatic mechanism in the question of amputa- 
tions of the leg has led us for a series of years not to let any 
occasion escape which might convince us of the utility of the arti- 
ficial members, /or, on the solution of this point depends the 
return of surgeons to the principles essentially conservative of 
their art. 57 
Before explaining the different considerations which no 
longer permit us to sacrifice the most sacred 
interests of humanity to a question of mechan- 
ical convenience, we must make mention of 
the different models of artificial limbs 
which have been given us by manufacturers. 
In 1696, a learned Dutch surgeon, Yer- 
duin, gave to the art a model of an artifi- 
cial limb. This limb was composed of a 
wooden foot, on which were fastened two 
pieces of steel, going up to a level with 
the articulation of the knee. A copper 
boot encased the stump, and was fastened 
by rivets to the side-pieces. * * * 
Louis, in his report to the Academy of 
Surgery, misunderstanding the tendency of 
the conclusions drawn by Yerduin, rejected 
both the method and the apparatus. 
Verduin. 
We know the power which the principle of authority had 
at that period. The decision made by Louis caused the 
abandonment of YerduiiTs appliance, and a return to Von 
Sollingen’s. All the surgeons of the eighteenth century, those 
of Italy and England as well as France, with the exception 
of Ravaton, endeavored to make their' patients walk with 
appliances taking their point of support around the knee. 
Hone of these, despite their varied forms, were found to answer, 
and even more than a century was passed in fruitless attempts. * 
Our learned brother, M. Ooyrand, was led to open a new 
era in the construction of artificial limbs, in cl.anging the 
point of support to the perinoeum. This improvement henceforth 
entered into automatic appliances in current practice, in 1831, 
especially for those amputated at the inferior third of the limb. 
“ Truths are wedges, to be driven to the head,” said Fon- 
tenelle. The great safety of amputation above the ankle, demon- 
strated daily by numerous facts announced officially at our Academy, 
has not been sufficient to popularize the operation at the lower third. 
When a truth has been repulsed by the very persons who 
ought to have comprehended its importance, it must be a 
long time before it is seen again to enter the domain of 
science. But this return must take place because numerous 
and patent facts increase evidence. 58 
Before speaking of facts, let us look]]for a moment at the 
different models which are in the Surgical Arsenal. First- 
come the models of Messrs. Palmer, Bechard, and Mathieu. 
Those of Dr. Palmer, are most simple and ingenious. Those 
of Messrs. Bechard and Mathieu have, as a base, two pieces 
of steel encased in leather, the foot being held raised by 
springs, as in the apparatus by M. Ferd. Martin. 
In the Palmer Limb, the action of the flexor spring is 
counterbalanced by an extensor-tendon, so that the foot aids 
in walking. Charged with the duty*of making a report on 
the magnificent appliance, you will permit us to reserve for 
that work the explanation of the exceedingly simple mechanism 
of the American artificial limb. 
American Legs. 
French Legs. 
Palmer. 
Palmer. 
Mathieu. 
Bechard. 
I. Palmer Limb.—The first person whom we saw wal king 
with this artificial limb was Dr. Palmer, the inventor of the 
American Limb. The talented Philadelphian had his leg 
amputated at an age when the loss of the member is less to 
be regretted than the ulterior consequences. Desirous of con- 
cealing his loss, he set himself to work at the construction of 
an artificial limb. Hot content with the different models 
given him, and endowed with great mechanical genius, he 
began to look for the means of constructing an appliance 
which would not only conceal his loss, but enable him to 
walk easily. Success has crowned his efforts, for it is difii- 59 
cult, even when one sees Dr. Palmer walking, to recognize 
that he uses an artificial leg. In 1851, on returning from the 
World’s exhibition, in London, the inventor was introduced 
to the Societe de Chirurgie, and a good number of our col- 
leagues could not tell which limb had been amputated. 
A second example of the fine action of the Palmer limb, 
is furnished us by the lady of one of our brother physicians 
and friends of London. This case is of the greatest impor- 
tance, from the fact that this lady had made use, successively, 
of appliances having their point of support at the perimeum, 
and thigh, and she does not hesitate fo accord the prefer- 
ence to the plan of Palmer. 
Here is the acknowledgment which has been transmitted: 
“At my very first trial of Hr. Palmer’s limb, I was convinced 
that I had found what I needed so badly. Since 1851 I have 
used no other appliance. I walk easily three or four miles 
without fatigue; I go about my house all day; finally, I 
have again taken up horseback exercise, and ride nearly every 
day. The point of support is above and below the knee, and 
I give this the preference over that of the appliances of 
Weiss, and Ferd. Martin. I have found beauty and utility 
united in the Palmer limb ; many of my new acquaintances do 
not know that I have undergone amputation.” 
MODELS OF THE BEST FRENCH ARTIFICIAL LEGS. 60 
111. Amputation at the inferior third of the limb—Successive 
employment of French and American limbs.—M. Jobert per- 
formed the amputation. The limb was taken off above the 
ankle. The wound having healed, the patient, then fifteen 
years old, made use of an artificial leg furnished by Gharriere. 
As this young man had suffered from having the point of 
support at the perimeum, he addressed himself to another 
maker, M. Bechard. The latter, believing that the excoria- 
tion of the tissues resulted merely from a fault in the dispo- 
sition of the upper padding, constructed the new leg upon 
the same model. This appliance, despite the care taken for 
its prevention, cut the skin of the patient. He then got an 
artificial leg on the Palmer Model. 
The patient liked the change of the point of support in the 
American limb so well, that he has since ordered a new Palmer 
limb. Thus, in sixteen years, he has made use of two models; 
he has tried each the same length of time, and, like the 
English lady, he does not hesitate to give the preference to 
Palmer’s. 
IV. M. Choiselat, thirty-two years of age, was acci- 
dentally thrown upon the rails of the Eastern Railroad, in 
the interior of the gaze de Meaux ; a train in motion passing 
over both legs, which were literally ground to powder. He 
was carried home, and, being examined, it was agreed that a 
double amputation was necessary ; the operation took place 
next day by M. Houzelat. Fifty days after the accident, the 
wounds were healed. It was agreed that he should try the 
American Limb. 
July 16th. M. Choiselat made use of the Palmer Limbs 
for the first time; notwithstanding the use of pegs for two 
months and a half, he soon learned the use of the new appa- 
ratus, rapidly and easily, on the third day he went down to the 
garden and back again to his room, leaning on an attendant’s 
arm. 
The next (fourth day) he went in a carriage to the rail- 
road depot, took the train to Chalons-sur-Marne, and made 
ten leagues by post to St. Menehould. There, alone and 
supported by a cane, he visited some of his friends, who were 
astonished at the result. 
September, M. Choiselat is passing the vacation in the 61 
country. Assisted by a cane, he walks for an hour and a 
half without much fatigue. 
March, 1857. With the aid of a cane, he has walked 
three and a half miles in one hour and forty minutes. 
During the whole time, the progress has been daily con- 
tinued and sensible. To-day (November 1858) he walks 
easily. He wears his limbs fifteen hours successively; he 
walks without a cane, stoops, and readily picks up objects from 
the floor; he sits down and rises without aid. M. Choiselat 
asserts that he has not been arrested in the performance of 
his vocation. Finally, the reparation is as perfect as possible. 
In order to gain a better understanding, M. Choiselat had 
made for him one of Mille’s limbs, modified by Zavier, an 
old workman of Charriere’s. This artificial limb is made, 
like the Palmer leg, of willow, but the thigh-socket goes up 
to the perinseum, and offers a point of support at the ischium. 
The following is the result of the comparative examination 
of the two appliances. The Zavier leg, although of equal 
weight with -Palmer’s, fatigues more in walking, cramps while in 
a sitting position, and permits of arising less easily, as well as 
of entering and descending from a carriage. 
The Palmer leg is light, is easily extended by the move- 
ments of the short levers (one of the stumps is three inches 
from the knee-pan, the other four inches). According to 
Judge Choiselat, the thigh-socket, which takes its point of 
support above the small part of the superior segment of the 
limb, offers a sustaining base equal to that of Zavier’s appa- 
ratus, which goes up to the perineum. 
Finally, an important matter—the Palmer limb is the one 
which has been used longest without being repaired. 
We have carefully noticed Judge Choiselat’s attempts 
every year, and his testimony has the greater value from the 
fact that, before witnessing this experiment, our colleagues 
had a great predilection for French appliances. * * * * 
Such are the facts of which we have been witness. 
Debout, Secretary, Societe de Chirurgie. 
For a quarter of a century I have left the surgical con- 
siderations principally to surgeons, supposing that those 
whose vocation had brought them daily to contemplate such 62 
matters could, better than myself, lead the way in true pro- 
gress in the art to which my vocation is so nearly allied. But, 
I find that the most important question in this great matter 
seems not to have been raised by the great surgeons since the 
time of Ambrose Pare, in the sixteenth century. This must 
be my excuse for thrusting the pronoun I forward, as I now 
do, coupled with the assertion that hitherto I never intended 
to put into print my personal experience in the matter. 
“ What can we reason but from what we know ?” 
One not similarly circumstanced cannot know how another 
feels. Each knows his own but not his fellow’s feeling. If, 
however,in a large class of persons-afflicted, there is found 
one common cause of an unhappy or an uncomfortable 
condition, should it not be fully set forth, that the con- 
dition may be ameliorated ? With this thought pressing 
heavily on my mind, I now return to my patients and note 
a most interesting case in point. James Tanner, Esq., 
appears as the first walker upon two Safety-Sockets, the 
hero of the first pair of Hew Palmer Legs, on the ends 
of short and tender stumps—an act requiring more nerve 
than facing the cannon did, as that aimed at legs only, 
while this shock struck at the base of sensibilities, and 
seemed to mock the human understanding. The mind of 
man is not so easily controlled as his physical members. I 
need not say that I felt much anxiety before seeing Mr. 
Tanner walk, and, though conscious of his success, I felt 
more anxious still when he first arose in the Safety-Sockets 
and jumped about the room. I advised him on receiving them 
to wear the old legs home, and use the new ones cautiously 
at first; but no, he insisted on leaving the old legs with me, 
which he did, and has not since used them. He went home 
on the ends of his stumps, and the next day took his place on 
active duty, in the Collector’s Office of the Custom House, 
with hundreds staring at him, and wondering at his move 
ments. lam aware that some persons will still fail to accept 
this important truth, and will ask for more and still more 
evidence. This evidence I can give, almost without limit, 
as my patients are counted by hundreds of intelligent 
persons, quite a number of them having double amputations. 
I can refer the doubting reader to some person hear him, who 
will remove his doubt. In this important matter I have not 63 
yet made known some of the best effects, first felt by myself, 
and then by my patients who have voluntarily spoken of the 
same happy changes in their general condition. All that I 
have written has not more than touched upon the greater, 
the paramount gain secured tor the sufferer, and cannot here 
be discussed at length, hut will be set forth fully in a future 
article. 
Scores and scores of amputated persons hearing of this 
new method of walking, have written, asking me to inform 
them if so much can he possible! To all such I have replied, 
but during the first year I wrote fully to but one man; 
that person is 0, F. Alley, Esq., who, being in California, 
could not come so far to see for himself, and as he asked for 
the full facts, I gave them without exaggerating or 
suppressing the exact truth. Upon reading my letter I 
almost feared to send it, lest he should think, as my friend 
and patient Commissioner Hibler thought, who wrote thus : 
“ When Ur. Palmer first suggested walking on the end of the 
stump, I thought it was the chimera of a brain allowed to 
dwell too long upon one subject/’ 
Put, at the time of this writing, Mr. Hibler had found 
comfort in my new invention, and “ method ” in my madness. 
So I ventured to let one letter go out written without reserve, 
but resolved not to repeat it unless the issue should be 
pleasant in every respect. That letter elicited from Mr. 
Alley the following reply; 
Ur. P. Frank. Palmer. 
Martinez, Cal., June 10,1873. 
Uear Sir ;—I am exceedingly gratified to learn that you 
have made so many important improvements in your original 
artificial leg. It seems almost impossible to believe that a 
stump as sensitive as mine can ever be walked upon, and yet, 
when I read your letter I am forced to believe that such is 
the case. I have read, re-read and read it again, and it 
invariably causes nervous contractions in the stump, peculiar, 
I suppose, to all persons who have lost a limb. 
Please find $l5O enclosed for the new leg. 
Yours, truly, 
0. F. ALLEY. 64 
Dear Sir :—My new leg with Safety-Socket, came to hand 
December 1, at 8 o’clock,?. M. Before retiring I tried it on, 
and it fitted me beautifully. I walked around the room, 
bearing my whole weight upon the end of the stump. 
Martinez, Contra Costa Co., Cal., Dec. 17,1873. 
When I took the Leg from the box 1 admired its beautiful 
mechanism, but I said to my wife that I didn't see how Icould 
wear it; nevertheless,! have worn it from that time until the 
present with increased satisfaction and pleasurable emotions ; 
the sensation upon the end of the stump being pleasant. 
I think the new Le»’ a marked, radical and decided 
O 7 
improvement on the old Leg, which I considered very near 
perfection. The action is more natural, and there is an 
elasticity in the step excelling that in your old style of leg. 
I am so well pleased with your new Leg, that I want every 
one who is so unfortunate as to require an artificial leg, to 
have one, and recommend any thus afflicted to you. 
I have two legs of your make which are almost as good as 
ever. 
Yours, respectfully, 
0. F. ALLEY. 
B. Frank. Palmer, LL.D. 
Much remains to be told, exceeding all yet written, about 
the benefit of walking on the end of the stump. lam con- 
vinced that the relief and advantage to the entire limb, and 
to the whole system, surpass the mechanical gain, great as it 
is, to the sufferer. This use of the stump changes the whole 
feeling and condition of the mutilated member. The end is 
kept warm in winter by this new use of it, and it is freed 
from the sharp pains, which, lightning like, have shot forth 
from the tied ends of twitching nerves, through the texture of 
torpid integuments, and atrophied muscles of a half-palsied 
limb, to the ends of the very hairs! Thousands of suf- 
ferers will feel these pains until the end of the stump is thus 
used. Many mutilated persons do not know what it is to 
feel really comfortable, or natural, on the entire side of the 
amputation, from the end of the stump to the crown of the 
head. Shall I, then, from fear of unjust criticism, by those 
who have not experienced these feelings, suppress a truth 
which is so essential to the comfort of fifty thousand sufferers 
who may easily find relief ? Yo! A thousand times No I! 65 
ZP.A.IR/T SZEJCOHsTID. 
In commencing Part Second of my book, I find the 
strongest incentives to resume the work with the thought 
which found expression on page sixty-four, Part First. 
I am fully convinced that any language at my command 
cannot be made to urge the importance of my theme too 
strongly. As I have proceeded cautiously in my work, 
with hand and foot—the one working and the other walk- 
ing—and as the thing made now moves in harmony with 
the human organism, I will entitle my two-fold labors, 
STEPS 
Steps, in Science or Art, like those of the human limb, in 
progression, may be successful or unsuccessful, true or false. 
We have felt the serious consequences of a false step of the 
human foot, and we know, for we have also felt, the thrill 
which has been sent to the heart by the unhuman action of 
the ancient substitute, with its painful pressure on the great 
nerve-centers, as well as on the excoriated cicatrix of the 
tender stump, while we have traced, with some satisfaction, 
the advance movements of more modern inventions which, 
while they were not perfect steps, in the march of progress, 
still they were so successful counterfeits as to pass for correct 
aids in walking, just as the perfect counterfeit bill becomes 
a welcome circulating medium until its real character is 
known, and the true bill supersedes it. In age, as in infancy, 
the mutilated man has crept before he walked. WHY? 
Why it is that intelligent surgeons, who have seen and 
felt this great want, have not instructed the mechanicians on 
this point, and suggested or demanded this important step in 
Compensatory Art, I am wholly unable to imagine; and if I 
had myself been sooner in a condition to have dared the ex- 
periment against all recorded surgical wisdom, I would now 
blush to come forward with my discovery, as the future 
observer will wonder at the long delay of this most import- 
ant invention in the art, which has only required a deter- 
mined and well-directed effort in the centuries past to estab- 
lish the principle. Want of such an effort has involved a 
great deal of pain, in imaginary and real forms, and caused 
stout, courageous men to go through life feeling their way 
cautiously along, like cowards in the dark, lest they touch 
the point on which they should manfully stand, and walk. 
There is much appropriate meaning in the word steps, for 
it will be found that, hitherto, all artificial legs have been 
in fact, as in name, false, and all of their goings have been 
false steps, which I now propose to change to true steps. 
The application of these legs, which, in design, as in opera- 
tion, have been in antagonism with natural laws, must now 
be abandoned, and the new method and mechanism substitu- 
ted, since an advance Step has been taken in Surgical Science, 
demanding a corresponding one in Art. The artist must 
copy, not counterfeit, the divine organism. Nature is the 
true teacher; man, at best, her obedient pupil. The surgeon, 
or the mechanician, may, through ignorance, retard the 
recuperative or locomotive action of the mutilated sufferer, 
but Nature will finally triumph over these errors, if life con- 
tinues. The unskillful incisions, whether made by the sur- 
geon in the flesh, or by the mechanician in the wood, will 
ever be pointed out by an unerring finger, until, under 
better treatment, even these ills shall be mitigated. The 
inventor will not fall behind the onward march of Humanity, 
Science, and Art. 
The end of the human leg, (whether it be found at the 
place where originally fixed as the point of support, or at 
a higher point, where a new outgrowth and union of simi- 
lar substances has been divinely combined to make good the 67 
last particle of the part saved after mutilation) is the obvious 
and natural point of support. Conditions may properly 
modify the means of adaptation, in the hands of the mechani- 
cian, but no degree of tenderness, or nervous sensibility, can 
change the law of nature on which my theory is has ed, in 
exceptional cases where the operators have been at fault. 
The reader who has patiently perused the sixty-four pre- 
ceding pages, in Part First, may wonder that I again take 
up the burden of my argument at the “ end,” and make it 
the'second beginning; but if he will read the letters addressed 
to me in a single day, by intelligent men, who still, after 
months of tedious correspondence, go on with doubting ques- 
tions, or reiterate their total disbelief in the new method, he 
would, if in my place, attempt, as I now do, to answer the 
army of unbelievers in some way less laborious than writing 
letters to'each one singly. 
Some men after a year of positive unbelief, finally obtain so 
much information from myself, and my patients, as to think 
that they could apply the new principle and save expense. 
They have attempted to violate my patent, in ignorance of the 
skill required to succeed, and, as will be supposed, they have 
made total failures. By such failures some have concluded 
that they were right in their first impression, and that the 
thing is “ impossible.” These men have appealed to some of 
my patients, who have given them positive assurance of my 
ability to satisfy them, while I have written to such per- 
sons that, if they will come and try the new principle, I will 
make no charge if it is not a perfect success. 
I now present a sample of the correspondence daily in 
hand, to show cause for still harping on one idea to the 
“bitter end,” and I will continue faithful in effort until my 
story is believed, in its entirety. 
If it has taken half a lifetime to gain a little true knowl- 
edge in my art, it seems likely to require completion of the 
life-work in teaching the simple truth successfully to those 
who should hail the approach of the tidings on the wings of 
the wind. It would consume all of my time to talk and 
write, in giving answers to the questions of those who ought, 
at once, for their own comfort, to accept the truth made 
plain by their mutilated fellows. 
I throw before them new evidences, from those who 68 
once raised the same doubt, which they now have, hoping 
that they will be able to discern the difference between the 
intelligent statements of well-known and honorable men, and 
the manufactured “certificates” of numerous aspirants for 
patronage who laugh at my new theory. 
“OPEN TO CONVICTION.” 
"We find a gentleman, who is the Secretary of a great State, 
writing now as he did a year ago, as follows. He is, at the 
end of a year, just at the stage that nearly all who have pre. 
ceded him reached by degrees. All are first certain the 
Safety-Socket will not do for their tender stumps; then they 
are “open to conviction,” then they put it on, and wonder 
that they ever doubted, and finally think that leg-makers 
ought to have known how to do it before. 
State of 
, Secretary of State. 
•, June 27,1874. 
Dr. B. Drank. Palmer. 
Dear Sir ;—Have received circulars from you calling my 
attention to your new Patent “ Safety-Socket.” I have but 
little faith in this mode of wearing Patent Legs—in my own 
case I have none, my stump is too tender, I verily believe, to 
admit of the use of the new idea. The amputation, I think, 
was not a good one. 
What is the price of this new leg ? If you had a plaster 
cast of my stump could you make a good and easy fit? 
Though an unbeliever in your pet theory, I am open to con- 
viction. 
Yours, truly, 
Secretary of State. 
PsTote.—Come here, Mr. Secretary of State, and if I do 
not set you successfully and comfortably on end, I will charge 
you nothing.—See page 87, Part First.] 69 
Near Memphis, Tenn., June 26, 1874. 
Da. B. F. Palmer, 
Dear Sir;—l have received your circulars concerning 
your elastic socket invention, but really my health has been 
so utterly broken down, that I have not been able to muster 
the courage to attempt to communicate with you. I have 
showed your circular to several of my friends, crippled like 
myself, and always been amused to see them shudder on 
barely entertaining the idea of resting the weight of the 
body upon the stump. I have always told them if a man of 
Palmer’s stature can do that, I know I can. A short time 
since, in my dining-room, when I wished to use something 
in both hands, I folded a simple linen table cloth and placed 
the end of my stump in it, and was surprised at the pressure 
I made on it. I met with you one evening in the gentle- 
men’s parlor of the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York. 
If my health improves, I shall soon send for a leg. 
Very respectfully, 
G-. 0. BUNTYN. 
Nashville, Tenn., June 28,1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—Yours of the 12th inst., with pamphlet, came 
to hand a few days ago. I have read the pamphlet, and 
afterwards let five of my unfortunate friends read it. They 
seem to think as I do, in regard to walking on the end of 
the stump, that it is a heavy undertaking. Yet, if one can do 
it, why should not all of us? I have been practicing to see 
how much weight I can take on the end of my stump, and I 
find that I can lay a cushion on a chair and take my entire 
weight (187 tbs) on it, although it is extremely tender, much 
more so than you would probably suppose. lam very anx- 
ious to try your patent, as I am very tired of leg. 
I want the leg as soon as possible. 
I am, very respectfully, 
W. L. HORN. 70 
Forest, Ohio, June 26,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—l have read and re-read your book, but my 
stump being so very tender, it seems that it would be 
impossible for me to bear my weight on the end. I have, 
however, been trying some pressure by pulling on it, with 
the end of the stump in the palm of hands, and also by 
placing a cloth over the end and pulling on it, and find by 
using it in this w~ay, I can bear more pressure every time 
I try it, therefore I have come to the conclusion that by 
usage, my stump will toughen so that I can wear your leg 
with Safety-Socket, notwithstanding the discouragement I 
have had from those who have lost their legs, and have worn 
false legs of others’ make for some time. There appears to 
be something wrong; my stump always has had constant 
twitching, jerking and burning pains, which seem to be caused 
by something close to the end of the small bone where the two 
flaps meet on the outside of the stump; the slightest touch 
of the finger on that spot will cause great pain to shoot 
apparently through the foot. You have the situation of my 
stump as near as I can give it; if you think I can wear your 
■leg with the Safety-Socket with any degree of comfort, and 
are willing to warrant it, I will send profiles and measures. 
Yours, truly, 
[Yote.—I will send the leg, and warrant satisfaction; see 
page 37, Part First.] 
JOSEPH MOORE. 
Mendocino City, Cal., June 10,1874. 
Prof. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—l have read your new pamphlet with surprise, 
for such a thing has never seemed possible to me, and my 
present limb seemed to have reached as near perfection as 
anything could well do. I congratulate you on the result of 
your labors, and hope they will be as profitable to yourself 
as they have been valuable to others. Make and send the 
new patent leg to me. Please find $l5O. 
Yours, truly, 
H. L. PIKE, Colonel U. S. Y. 
Ed. West Coast Star. 71 
CASES RECENTLY TREATED. 
We will now notice some recent and important cases 
treated, and then in Part Third of the book we shall notice the 
preceding cases again after treatment. 
The next letter presented, page 72, happily corroborates my 
personal experience, and furnishes another evidence of the 
magnitude of the work, and its life-cheering results. 
This new method of using the end of the stump sets all 
the mechanism of Nature into use, from the point of ampu- 
tation to the body, and brings about a complete change in 
the tone of the muscles, tissues, integuments and nerves. 
In feeling, as well as in the action of a mutilated limb, 
there is a new condition of all the parts, reaching up the side 
and along the body on which it acts. Feeling this great 
comfort, I give the facts for the benefit of those similarly 
situated. 
Thousands of mutilated persons are now suffering hourly 
for want of correct surgical and mechanical treatment, which 
has not been given in the past. Many suffer much more 
from the presence of the remaining portion, almost palsied, 
completely useless, and nervously painful, than from the 
absence of the part severed. The great evil resulting from 
the complex ills deranges the harmony of the whole system 
The sufferer struggles under an affliction which he does not 
understand, and is often ready to yield to the constant sense 
of a hidden spring, which imbitters the source of all his 
enjoyments. Some heroically battle with these ills, believ- 
ing that the suffering is necessarily inseparable from a 
mutilated condition. Walking, standing, sitting, reclining 
-—every moment of action or inaction—awake or asleep, the 
effect of the hitherto hidden cause has disturbed the whole 
organism. Free circulation of the vital fluids, and action of 
the members, are inseparable from a comfortable condition of 
the human body. To sever an important part, and then 
leave the remaining portion of a limb in an abnormal condi- 
tion, for want of proper care and use, is to insure discomfort, 
if not misery, to the victim of the knife. Humanity, thus 
mutilated and bound, becomes existence rather than life; the 
day is comfortless, and night refuses the solace that is sought 
in repose by the sufferer, bringing nervous tossings and 
troublesome dreams instead. 72 
Dr. Palmer. 
Anderson, Indiana, April 28,1874. 
Dear Sir;—l am glad to hear of your improvement in 
the artificial leg. 
My own knee had been bent for twenty-seven years, so (as 
yours had been bent thirty-eight years) I thought I would 
try and straighten mine. I went to work at it, and took the 
leg you made for me nineteen years ago (to go on the knee), 
and put a piece on the top, raised the joints, and fitted the 
stump in a socket, and have been walking on it. I now 
have good use of the knee joint; I go up stairs, one foot 
over the other, carrying a bucket of water. 
My joint was as weak as a baby’s, when I first walked, but 
it is now getting very strong. If I had a new leg, with the 
Safety-Socket, I could walk perfectly. I want you to make 
me one, soon as possible. 
Pespectfullv yours, 
P. HAWK, 
Philadelphia, May 18,1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer, 
Sir.—l take pleasure in adding my testimony to that of 
others, who, I have no doubt, feel as grateful as I for the 
inestimable service you have done them. 
On the seventeenth day of September, 1862, I had the 
misfortune to receive a wound in the right leg, at the battle 
of Antietam, fought on that day, which rendered amputation 
below the knee necessary. On the fourth day of March, 
1863, I commenced wearing one of your legs, and although 
my stump is but three inches below the knee, I never found 
any trouble in walking. I wore the leg until March, 1871, 
visiting California in the meantime, where I remained three 
years. On my return from California, I procured the leg 
which I am now wearing with the improved Safety-Socket. 
This socket is all the Palmer leg required to make it 
perfection, and I would advise all unfortunates, like myself, 
whether their legs be old or new, to have this improvement. 
They will find not only a great improvement in their walk- 
ing, but will find they can walk much further without 
fatigue. I am a printer by trade, and work on an average 
ten to fifteen hours in the twenty-four. I stand at my case 
while working, and never think of sitting down. I will here state that the old leg, which I first wore in 1863, is 
now, after ten years service, in good order. 
Hoping this will help to enlighten all unfortunates like 
myself, as to the best substitute for the loss of a limb, 
I remain, 
Yours, respectfully, 
JOHN" P. DUFFY, 
Late Co. 0, 28th Penna. Yols. 
[Note—Mr. Duffy, before trying the new idea, went to 
his surgeon, Dr. H. Earnest Goodman, whose name will be 
seen on page 44, Part First, and asked him if it would be 
safe to put it on. Dr. G. said “Yes, perfectly safe.”] 
Renick, Randolph Co., Mo., March, 11, 1874. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—l send you (according to your request,) one 
hundred dollars on account, and hope to get a good leg. 
I have confidence that I will get a good leg, for I have writ- 
ten to several men who have your Patent Safety-Socket, and 
their replies have been satisfactory. 
¥M. MYRTLE, P. M. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Yours, truly, 
Dear Sir;—l received the new leg which you sent me, 
and after giving it a fair trial, I find it a great success. I 
wear it all day, attend to the Post Office and walk a long 
distance—night and morning. I travel around with per- 
fect ease, and my acquaintances hardly notice any difference 
in my legs. Ho money could buy the leg if I could not get 
another like it. 
I can recommend your Patent to be the best in use. 
Very respectfully, 
WM. MYRTLE, P. M. 
Middletown, Penna., May 10,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer, 
Dear Sir:—l received my artificial leg safely, and have 
worn it now for seven days in succession. The stump rests 
on the Safety-Socket very nicely, and works splendidly 
Yours, respectfully, 
WILLIAM T. HARLEY. 74 
Office of the Treasurer op the County op Wellington, 
Ontario, (New Dominion), Guelph, May 1,1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—l received the new leg all right. The Safety- 
Socket is without doubt a vast improvement, and an im- 
mense benefit. 
I am, sir, yours, respectfully, 
WM. REYNOLDS, Treas. 
Sandy Hill, New York, April 30,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir;—ln accordance with your request, I will write 
and let you know how the leg goes. I wore it about a 
week without anything in the socket, so as to give it 
a thorough trial. 
The stump gets tougher; so far, it has not chafed, and I 
am in hopes it will not, until I get so that I can bear all my 
weight on the end of the stump. 
Yours, respectfully, JOHN HILLS. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Red Oak, lowa, April 19,1874. 
Dear Sir:—l will inform you that Mr. Davenport has 
received his Safety-Socket leg, all right—finds it a perfect 
fit—walks splendidly on it, and says he is under many 
obligations to you. 
[Note.—H. 11. Palmer, Esq., has the leg also, and recom- 
mended it to Mr. D.] 
Yours, &c., H. 11. PALMER. 
Hollidaysburg, Pa., June 25, 1874. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Dear Sir ;—I have walked constantly, since the first of 
August last, on my new leg, with the end support. I find 
that for firmness in walking and naturalness in feeling, your 
late patent is certainly a decided improvement. 
Respectfully, 
D. M. JONES, 
Col. U. S. Y. 75 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 20,1874. 
Dear Sir ;—I am happy to inform you that lam getting 
along splendidly on my new leg. 
I saw Mr. Addison Palmer, in Zanesville, last week; he 
wished to know how I got along on the Safety-Socket. I 
told him first-rate, and advised him to get one. 
That young man who lost his on the railroad, is going to 
order one of your limbs. 
I am yours, respectfully, 
DAVID PROPERT. 
Roseburg, Oregon, May 8,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—With pleasure I write you as requested. I 
got my leg two weeks ago, and I am well satisfied with it. 
It fits splendidly, and it is so light that I can walk around 
almost as well as ever. You could not tell there was any- 
thing the matter with me now—l feel like a new man. I 
expected it would be better than the one I got before, but I 
did not expect it to be so much better. The one I got from 
• , is like a chunk of wood, and the one I got from you 
feels like a natural leg. I think the support on the end of 
the stump is a great thing. At first I could not bear so 
much, but I find it does not hurt at all now. 
Yours, truly, 
PATRICK McGrROGAY. 
Mayor’s Office, 
Dr. Palmer. 
Toledo, Ohio, June 20, 1874. 
Dear Sir:—l received my leg on the 17th inst., and to- 
day I am wearing it without a cane. 
I am well pleased with it, and shall do all in my power to 
get all the applications for you possible. 
Yours, truly, JACOB ESSEX. 
Office Penna. Rail Road, 
Camden, X. J., March 5, 1874. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—lt affords me great pleasure to inform you 
that the leg, which you applied in December last, with the 
Patent Safety-Socket, is a complete success. 76 
My amputation, above the knee, gave a pointed and sensi- 
tive end to the stump, but I experienced no unpleasant feel- 
ing while resting my weight firmly in the Safety-Socket; 
and having read the letter of F. H. Furniss, Esq., concerning 
the return of the natural feeling of the human limb, to wit: 
“ The muscles begin to feel as if they reached to the foot; the 
warm blood seems again to descend to the toes, bringing 
back former sensations”—l find a true expression of the facts, 
and endorse his statement. It is not a year since my 
amputation, and I am amazed at the great progress I have 
made in two months use of the new leg. 
Very truly yours, 
J. ELFRETH WATKINS, 
Civil Engineer Penna. R. R. 
Atlanta, Ga., April 15,1874. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Dear Sir :—My stump was so tender that I thought I 
could not go on the end, but on trial of the Safety-Socket 
leg, I found I could put my whole weight on the end with 
positive comfort. lam surprised at the result. 
JOHN J. CALLAGHAN, 
St. Clair, Penna., April 14,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
No. 101 South Loyd St., Atlanta, Ga. 
Dear Sir :—I am happy to inform you that I received my 
leg, and am very much pleased with it. I wore it all day 
Sunday and Monday and did not use a cane. I walk with 
perfect ease, and it feels more like the natural leg, and is much 
lighter than the old one. 
O 
I can go through any dance, and waltz as well as if I had 
my natural leg—many thanks to you. 
Yours, truly, 
JOHN McKEONE. 
U. S. Indian Reservation, 
Neoh Bay, W. T., June 9,1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
My Dear Sir:—l have received my leg in good condition 
by express, and paid $l5O in gold; it gives perfect satisfaction, 
I am wearing it now, and surprise the Indians very much 
in the manner in which I use it. When it was received, the 77 
Indians gazed upon it with wonder and amazement. I hope 
it will do me until the Centennial, when I expect to visit 
Philadelphia, and get a new one. 
Accept my thanks for the prompt manner in which you 
complied with my request in sending it. With kind regards, 
I am, very truly yours, 
E. M. GIBSON, U. S. Indian Agent. 
Yorkville, S. C., January, 30,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir;—l handed one of your circulars, explanatory 
of the improved Safety-Socket, to Mr. W. E. Erwin, of this 
place, who, like myself \is incredulous as to its success; however, 
he suggested this morning, that we each take a leg with the 
improvements. Please find funds enclosed; send mine soon, 
and oblige, 
Yours, respectfully, 
JAMES F. HART. 
Office of James F. Hart, Attorney-at-Law, 
Yorkville, S. C., April 14,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir;— The leg with new Safety-Socket came to 
hand last Saturday night, and to-day I am wearing it, and 
attending to my usual business with comfort and ease. The 
pressure upon the end of the stump—a theory that all unfor- 
tunates of our class are skeptical about—is certainly the 
most wonderful improvement of the age in the manufacture of 
artificial legs, and I am only surprised that inventors had not 
sooner directed attention to it. This pressure is borne easily 
and pleasantly. Having less than two inches of stump upon 
which to distribute the pressure, with the leg formerly worn, 
you can imagine the relief afforded by a leg that enables me 
to place the pressure on the end of the stump, with entire 
comfort. I can stand with my sound leg drawn up and sup- 
port the whole weight of the body on the artificial limb 
without discomfort, a thing I could never do before. 
While giving you this unsolicited testimonial as to the 
advantages of your great discovery, and its application to 
practice, I desire to say that I shall never wear or recom- 
mend to others any leg that does not support the weight, as 
yours does, on the end of the stump. 78 
P. S.—l have withheld this letter for some days, fearing 
that I might find cause to modify my views, but I have 
since worn the leg constantly, and am ready to reiterate all 
heretofore written in its favor. 
Yours, truly, JAMES F. HART. 
Mr. Erwin will send on soon. 
Lancaster Court House, S. C., October 25, 1873. 
Hr. B. Frank. Palmer, 
Hear Sir:—Your reply, offering to make a leg for me 
and Maj. B, R. Clyburn, I showed to Maj. Clyburn, and he 
told me he would send with me for a leg. I send you one 
hundred dollars—part payment in advance, which you will 
credit. 
My stump is very tender; the hone being very near the 
surface. I doubt whether I can use your Safety-Socket. I see 
it can he removed, and if it hurts me I will take it out. 
Yours, truly, 
JOHN C. WITHERSPOON. 
May 7,1874. 
Hr. B. Franz. Palmer. 
Hear Sir;—Maj. Clyburn requests me to send you fifty 
dollars and measures for a leg, and will pay you the balance 
on delivery. I told Maj. Hart and Mr. Irwin, of York, of 
your leg, and when they saw how well mine worked, they con- 
cluded to get one. Hart, I understand, has got his, and is 
very much pleased. My leg is all right. I will take plea- 
sure in giving you my testimonial, and am satisfied your 
limb will be used generally in this section. 
Very respectfully, 
JOHN C. WITHERSPOON, 
Attorney-at-Law. 
Lancaster, C. H., S. C., May 4,1874, 
Hr. B. F. Palmer. 
Hear Sir :—Having seen one of your artificial legs which 
is now worn by my friend, J. C. Witherspoon, Esq,, and 
feeling satisfied of its superiority over all others, I enclose to 
you measures and fifty dollars—will pay balance on delivery. 
Please make the leg and send by express. 
Yours, respectfully, B. R. CLYBURN. 79 
B. F. Palmer, LL. D. 
Union, S. C., October 28,1878. 
Dear Sir:—Yours of the 23d inst. received.—The Safety- 
Socket, is my main object in trying one of your legs. I did 
not use the leg without pain. 
Yours, truly, 
CHAS. BOLT. 
Union, S. C., June 10, 1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer, 
Office of Clerk of the Court, 
Dear Sir;— The leg you made me is a success; I must 
acknowledge that my expectations were high when I called 
on you, but to get a substitute so complete as the one you 
gave me, I had no idea of receiving, and I cannot refrain 
from giving you my heartfelt thanks. 
Yours, with sincere thanks, 
CHARLES BOLT, 
Clerk of the Courts. 
Jacksonville, Onslow Co., Y. C., March 24, 1874. 
Dr. B. Frank. Palmer. 
1609 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Penn. 
Dear Sir:—l received the leg you made for me about the 
first of January, and have been wearing it ever since. I confess 
that I did not know what the comfort and convenience of an 
artificial leg were before I commenced using your patent. I 
have never as yet felt the least inconvenience from it. My 
friends, the first day I put it on, noticed a very perceptible 
improvement in my walk. I lost my leg in April, 1864, 
from gun-shot wound, and have worn out two artificial 
limbs, but they were no comparison in ease and comfort to 
the one you made me. Accept my sincere thanks, and I 
think you are entitled to the gratitude of every one-legged 
man who uses one of your patent limbs. 
Yery respectfully and truly, yours, 
A. C. HUGGIYS, 
Clerk Supreme Court. 
Antesia, Miss., May 31,1874. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
My Dear Sir:—l hope you will not consider me ungrate- 80 
ful in delaying so long adding my testimonial to the many 
thousands that you receive, declaring the efficiency of your 
perfect artificial limb. It was once glorious for a soldier to 
lose a limb in defense of his country ; but the invention of a 
Palmer leg has reduced that patriotism to a secondary consid- 
eration. You will remember how completely disgusted I was 
with the leg the first time I put it on; I asked you, did you 
think I would ever learn to walk with a cane, and how 
astonished I was when you replied that I would walk well 
without a cane. I thought, at that time, I would invest the 
cost of two legs in advertising it as a Yankee humbug. 
Yow, I feel as if I would send a certificate to every unfor- 
tunate like myself, to try an artificial limb—with a caution 
attached—none but the Palmer limbs are genuine. I walk 
perfectly on my leg, (a thigh amputation) and frequently 
ride thirty to forty miles a day without any inconvenience. 
You can safely guarantee an unfortunate his money back if 
the leg does not prove entirely satisfactory. I have used the 
new leg two years, and not had a dime’s expenditure on it 
yet, and the machinery is still perfect. 
I cultivate one thousand acres in corn and cotton, and 
attend to it all myself. In fact, Ido not miss my leg being 
off, so perfect is the artificial one. All I ask of a “ doubt- 
ing Thomas ” (having been one myself), is to give the Pal- 
mer leg a fair test. I would not be without the leg for any 
consideration. > 
You are at liberty to use this as you see proper, for many 
of the brave soldiers, Yorth and South, are to-day unwilling 
to believe that Dr. B. F. Palmer can fit them a leg that is 
almost natural. I will be on to the Centennial celebration, 
and call to see you in 'propria persona. lam no Congressman, 
nor the son of a Congressman, but Congress ought to vote 
you a princely fortune for the patent, so that it would place 
the leg in reach of every soldier Yorth and South, for we are 
one nation and one people. It would do more good to har- 
monize the two sections than all the amnesty proclamations 
and messages ever issued. 
I remain, your faithful friend, 
JOE. H. ASKEY, 
Co. A. Gen’l. W. B. Forrest’s Old Eegt. 81 
To Doubting Friends. 
Mobile, Ala., June 15, 1874. 
Greeting:—Thinking my experience in the use of the two 
artificial limbs, the old and the new patent, might be of some 
interest to those in need of a substitute, I make this full 
statement as corning from a Southern Soldier. In Septem- 
ber, 1863,1 was wounded in the left leg, (which caused am- 
putation) and shortly after taken as prisoner of war to Wash- 
ington City, and confined in the Old Capitol Prison ; while 
there I ordered my limb, (Palmer’s Patent) and my measure 
was taken in that Prison, but I did not receive the leg 
until after my removal to Point Lookout, which was another 
prison, situated on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The 
camp was laid off in streets, with deep ditches on each side 
of about four to five feet in width; our tents were placed 
on each side of these streets, with the ditch in front, which 
rendered it impossible for a prisoner to get from his tent to the 
street without first crossing the ditch, and to cross meant to 
jump. I remained in that prison a little over five months, 
after the arrival of my limb, and jumped that ditch not less 
than thirty-six hundred times, each and every time landing my 
full 150 pounds on the artificial leg, and it stood the test without 
breaking or even being injured. Ido not think a more severe 
test could be tried practically. 
On another occasion a Brigadier Gen’l (who wore one of 
England’s best limbs) and myself, were on the same train 
together, on our way from Charlotte, IST. C., to Hillsboro, in 
the same state; the road had been cut by raiders between 
these two points, and our car only carried us to the break in 
the road. We both got out; he to sit on the track while 
one of his men went seventeen miles on foot, for the General’s 
horse to carry him, while I, with my Palmer limb, footed the 
distance, and went five miles further to the next station, 
beating the General by at least twenty-four hodrs. On this 
trip I carried a carpet-sack weighing between thirty and 
forty pounds, and did not use a cane. Since the close of the 
war I have led a sedentary life, and have not put my limb to 
any severe test, but I know when the time comes, that it will 
not fail. I was perfectly contented with the old limb, but 
am now using one of the Safety-Socket legs, which I find 
is an immense improvement, and enables me to accomplish 82 
the impossible in the past. To my Southern friends in need 
of artificial limbs, I would say, that I consider the new 
Palmer limb the best in the world, and that it is not necessary 
to go to the factory to have a limb fitted, but only to fill out the 
blanks Dr. Palmer will send you, on application. Believe 
me, they are all that is necessary, and all that I sent. 
Respectfully, 
GEO. H. TAYLOR, M. D. 
I wish the reader to read again these last letters, and 
then ask himself, why it was that Mr. Asken, when first 
trying the leg, was so disposed to denounce it. The reason 
is known by all our Southern friends who, like him have been 
the subject of certain mountebanks who, having nothing to 
do at home, in the North, have, since the war, been South 
plying their vocation, with less success than the peripatetic 
cordwainer achieves with his waxed-end, by “ whipping-the- 
cat,” with his kit on his back in Yankee-land. 
These Southern men have been so abused by the itinerant 
craftsmen from the North, wTho misrepresent our reliable man- 
ufacturers, that they seem to think we are all a combi- 
nation of carpet-baggers, seeking, in every way, to cheat them. 
I will, with pleasure, refer all such applicants to prom- 
inent men on my list, in every state, who, like Mr. Asken, 
and Dr. Taylor, will give them the true information. 
STILL LATER LETTERS. 
Two most valuable letters have just been received, one 
from my first patient, (1846); the other from Judge Brook- 
ings, (patient of 1858). Mr. Albert D. Taylor’s leg is off 
three inches below the knee, and Judge Brookings has lost 
both legs about four inches below his knees. It is only 
about three months since these gentlemen became converts 
to the new theory. Allusion to Mr. T. will be seen on page 
4, Part First, and to Judge B. on page 48, Part First. 
This Diary of the day’s doings, in which will be seen the 
steps by which men pass from a state of the most positive 
unbelief, to a condition which causes them to burst forth in 
exclamations of irrepressible joy, will be found convincing. No man can so manufacture unreal testimony as to give it 
the force which real evidence hears on its face, and no man 
can now bamboozle a dozen Lawyers, Clerks of Courts, 
Judges, Physicians, Rail Road Presidents, and Southern 
gentlemen, who have been once cheated, so as to obtain from 
them such letters as they voluntarily send when a great 
service has been rendered, which they were not looking for. 
Judge Brookings, being President of a Rail Road, could 
travel free ot expense; hence, he came to Philadelphia from 
Dakota Territory, and put on the legs. Mr. Taylor had his 
sent to lowa, by express. 
Atlantic, near Winterset, lowa. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Dear Sir:—l sent Mr. P. B. Sprague (see page 37, Part 
First,) to you for a leg, and in return, when he came home, 
he advised me to get the Safety-Socket leg, which I had not 
supposed I could wear—my stump being very tender. I now 
believe in the Safety-Socket as applied in the leg you sent to 
me. I have worn your leg almost thirty years, and have 
always, and on all occasions, talked and walked Palmer leg. 
I walk so well that people will not believe I wear a false 
leg till they take hold of it. I now anticipate much more 
comfort in wearing the Safety-Socket leg, in which I stand 
with delight. 
Truly, your friend, ALBERT D. TAYLOR. 
Dakota, Grand Trunk Railway Office, 
Yankton, Dakota Ty., July 10,1874. 
My Dear Sir:—l have worn a pair of your limbs since 1858. 
The new pair, with Safety-Socket, I find a great improve- 
ment. One of mine was so constructed that the entire weight 
bore on the end of the stump; and, at first, was rather dis- 
agreeable, but after wearing a month I find them both 
comfortable. I now believe the invention of the Safety- 
Socket the greatest improvement that has been made in 
artificial limbs. It is the most natural bearing, and easiest 
for the limbs, either sitting or standing. It is so comforta- 
ble and natural that it will be very soon generally adopted. 
Yours, truly, 
W. W. BROOKINGS, President. 
B. Frank. Palmer, LL. D. 84 
THE NEW PALMER FOOT 
FOR 
SYME OPERATIONS, 
PIROZOFF OPERATIONS, 
CHOPART OPERATIONS, &C. 
Amputation by Prof. James Syme, in the 
Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburg. 
[ The Old and New Falmer Leg Tested.j 
Office of the Red Star Line, Steam Ship Company, 
Dr. B. F. Palmer. 
Chicago, 111., July 15, 1874. 
Dear Sir ;—Having worn two of your limbs, I wish to 
add my testimony in favor of an invention which has re- 
sulted so beneficially to me. I suffered amputation of my 
right foot at the ankle joint, near twenty years ago, while in 
Scotland, the operation being performed personally by Prof. 
Syme, then of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburg. I wore 
what is commonly called a peg-boot for nine years, and suffered 
so much by it, that I despaired of ever having much use of my 
limb, or being otherwise than a complete cripple all my life. 
Circumstances, however, caused me to emigrate to this 
country, where, after having resided two years in Pittsburgh, 
I learned of the fame of your limbs, and was persuaded by 
my friends to procure one. I did so, and immediately that 
I put it on, I walked with perfect comfort, naturalness and 
ease. My New foot is a capital fit and a complete success. I 
walked a distance of twelve miles in three trials, besides 
standing on my feet in the office all day without being tired. 
I walk on an average eight miles every day and feel no 
inconvenience. Your obedient servant, 
JAMES H. MILNE, Agent Red Star Line. 85 
LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 
I have now to add most valuable testimony from England, 
and other countries. 
Brighton, England, March 28,1873. 
B. F, Palmer, LL. D. 
Sir:—Fifty years ago next September, I had my right leg 
amputated, being then about nine years of age. As soon as 
I had done growing I had a false leg, and ever since then 
have worn one, and of course had a great many. About 
two years ago, when I was wanting a new leg, I met with a 
second hand one which a lady had worn for many years, but 
which she, getting fat, had grown out of, and being too 
small she sent it to a shop for sale, where I saw it. It was 
an American made leg. I was so struck with it, as being 
altogether so superior to anything I had ever seen, that I 
determined to try if I could wear it. With a little padding, 
&c., I found it would fit me. I have worn it now for two 
years with such perfect comfort and such'entire satisfaction, 
that I determined to get another like it. As I did not know 
who was the maker, or where to apply in America, I wrote 
to my friend, Dr, H. W. Beecher, of Brooklyn, who kindly 
sent me your papers. 
I will fill up your Blank, and shall be glad to hear from 
you by the next mail, if possible. 
Yours, faithfully, 
HENRY QUICK, 
Pastor of Clifton Road Church. 
B. F. Palmer, L L. D. 
My Dear Sir:—The limb arrived all right; it fits beauti- 
fully. I walk with perfect ease. It leaves nothing to be 
desired. I wish every one that has met with the same loss 
was so well provided. 
I shall write and thank Mr. Beecher for introducing 
your office. 
sir, 
With many thanks to you for the comfort I enjoy, I am, 
Very truly yours, 
June 23,1873. 
HENRY QUICK 86 
There is something more than mere chance about the 
adventures of this Palmer leg, which was made in 1851 for 
an English lady, and worn in 1873 by an English clergy- 
man (when the lady had no longer any use for it). The 
letters of the clergyman do not contain the most singular 
portion of the leg’s history. This leg, it appears, was the 
first one made and fitted by me in London. The triumph 
was so complete, and the lady felt so grateful, that, after 
purchasing two legs at once, (and paying sixty guineas,) she 
went personally before the great scientists in London 
(prominent among whom was her husband), and then to 
Paris, to claim for it the admiration of such eminent sur- 
geons as Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, Sir ¥m. Ferguson, M. 
Velpeau, M. Roux, and their associates. The lady was 
successful in presenting it, and is referred to in the report of 
the Society de Chirurgie, as Madame X, to wit: 
UA lady aged Iff—Amputation at the middle of the limb— Use 
of artificial limbs since 1836—Successive trials of different 
models—Ferd. Martin, Mille, Palmer.—Madame X . 
“ Here is a second example of the fine action of the 
Palmer limb. It is furnished us by the lady of one of our 
brother physicians and friends of London. This case is of 
the greatest importance, from the fact that this lady had 
made use, successively, of English and French appliances, 
and does not hesitate to accord the preference to Palmer’s.” 
[See page 59, Part I.] 
There is an explanation of the circumstance that caused 
this limb to be placed on sale, after twenty years’ use by the 
lady, which causes the truth, in the journeying of this Pal- 
mer leg, to become “stranger than fiction.” For this reason 
all that the reverend gentleman could learn of the origin of 
the leg, was, that it was made by an “American.” Think- 
ing that the knowledge of the maker could be obtained by 
writing to his most eminent clerical friend in America, the 
Rev. Mr. Quick wrote to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
who being in no doubt as to the maker of the leg, came 
immediately to my office—a long distance—obtained from 
me the proper blanks, sent them to his friend in England, 
who returned the measures to me, with Baring & Brothers’ 
bill of exchange. Many thanks are due to the Rev. ..Mr. 87 
Beecher, who has more than once given such evidences of 
kind personal regard, and appreciation of the professional 
services rendered to his friends. 
This new American leg now worn by the Rev. Henry 
Quick, has become famous in England, of late, as the one 
made for the English lady did in 1851. 
A prominent gentleman in Liverpool, acting on the advice 
of eminent English surgeons, wrote thus : 
11 Drury Lane, Liverpool, Eng., Oct. 7th, 1873. 
B. F. Palmer, L.L.D. 
My Dear Sir :—Learning from my friends that you make 
a much better patent leg than is made in England, I send 
you measures for a leg for my son, who has for some time 
worn the best made here. Our friends, Messrs. Brown 
Brothers, Philadelphia, will hand you one hundred and 
fifty debars, gold. 
My son is starting to-morrow for a four months’ trip round 
to the West Coast of America for his health, and conse- 
quently there is no hurry for the leg. 
Yours, Truly, 
HENRY JUMP. 
In March last, a gentleman walked into my office saying, 
“ I am Mr. Jump, father of the young man for whom the 
leg was ordered. Feeling a desire to have the leg fitted by 
you personally, my son decided to visit Philadelphia, and 
Mrs. Jump and myself wishing to see him put on the new 
leg, concluded to come and see you, then cross the 
Rocky Mountains to meet our son, and go through the 
Yosemite Yalley, then return with him to Philadelphia.” 
A TELEGRAM. 
Clarendon Hotel, New York, July 20,1874. 
Dr. Palmer, 
Philadelphia. 
We will be with you to-morrow. 
HENRY JUMP. 88 
MEMORANDA. 
My English friends, Mr. and Mrs. Jump, have arrived 
with their fine son. The young man is a good specimen of an 
athlete, nineteen years of age, over six feet high, with a 
grand physique, which, I doubt not, was developed in part 
by the manly sport that cost him a leg. In June, 1868, 
when about thirteen years old, he received a ball, against 
the ankle, while at his great game of cricket. For five 
months he concealed the pain he felt, and walked with but 
little limping. Then he was obliged to submit to treat- 
ment. His surgeons were no less than Drs. Peckastaf and 
Banks, of Liverpool, and Sir Wm. Ferguson and Sir James 
Paget, of London. He also had the advice of the great 
Prof. Syme, of Edinburgh, But they could not all save his 
foot. Amputation was performed about two inches above 
the knee, and a most excellent stump remains, Mr. J. 
has walked on an English leg till now. On the first trial of 
the new Palmer leg, this day, he placed his whole weight 
(about two hundred pounds) on the end of his stump, and, 
smiling, said the pressure was pleasant. It is a grand suc- 
cess, and will be seen by the great English surgeons shortly, 
who sent their patient so far to obtain the Safety-Socket 
leg, and to whom I submit my work with much pleasure. 
Mr. Jump put his leg on in Philadelphia, July 27th, and 
walked without a cane to the ship in which he sailed. 
NEW PALMER LEO IN ENGLAND. 
Reference is respectfully made to Sir “William Ferguson, 
and Sir James Paget, London, and to the eminent Surgeons 
Peckastaf and Banks, Liverpool, who have sent to me their 
patients, also, to 
HENRY JUMP, Esq., 11 Drury Lane, Liverpool, 
AND THE 
Reverend HENRY QUICK, Brighton, near London. 89 
A GENTLEMAN OF HALIFAX, N. S. 
This gentleman recently sailed from Halifax to London, 
to obtain a leg. (His name will be given if asked for.) 
Having gone so far, he sought the advice of the Queen’s 
Surgeon, Sir Wm. Ferguson, who advised him to return by 
the same steamer, to America, and get a Palmer Leg. He 
did so, being (as he assured me after doubling the Atlantic, 
getting the most authoritative advice in London, and sail- 
ing to my office in Boston) certain that he had found, what 
he started out for,—“ the best leg in the world.” He was 
well satisfied with his round trip, and his final success in 
finding the leg ;—though since then, when wanting similar 
professional aid, he has not sailed out in the same direction, 
finding a shorter route to reach Boston, from Halifax, than 
via London. And yet it is not hard to imagine that this 
man never regretted his trip to London, because the advice he 
obtained from the great surgeon of that great city, settled his 
mind, and he has not since been in doubt, as some are who do 
not go so far, and do not learn so much to their advantage. 
A gentleman from Scotland, recently came to Philadel- 
phia, to examine the new invention, and expressed great 
pleasure. He took the papers necessary out by a late 
steamer, to send measures for a leg, for his son, to be sent 
to Scotland. This case is in hand. 
Another gentleman recently came to Philadelphia, on 
crutches, from Chili, S. A., to obtain the leg to be used by him 
in traversing the Cordillera Mountains, as railroad conductor. 
In fact, it may be said that there is again an active demand for 
the Palmer leg throughout the civilized world, and that it is 
most sought where the arts of refinement are most perfected, 
and by men who judge of the evidences before them intelli- 
gently, after crossing oceans or continents, in some instances, 
to examine it. 
It is of some importance to show that the English gentle- 
man sails to America, from London, and that the French 
Judge, sitting in Ermine, sends from Paris to Philadelphia 
for his Artificial Legs; especially as it is seen that foreign 
gentlemen are recommended to do so by the best judges of 
such an invention in the great transatlantic cities. 90 
NEW PALMER LEG IN SPAIN. 
(sent to general palomino.) 
Sig. Palomino, the Spanish Consul in Philadelphia, has 
recently sent the Palmer leg to his brother, a distinguished 
officer at the Court of Madrid. Sig. Palomino has com- 
menced negotiation for the Palmer leg on behalf of his gov- 
ernment, on account of the success of this leg. 
NEW PALMER LEG IN CUBA. 
(LETTER OF DON AURELIO ALMEIDA.) 
Matanzas, CußAjEeb. 5, 1874. 
Dr. Palmer. 
Dear Sir;—l have received the second artificial leg (Safety- 
Socket), which is superior to the first one, and gives a great 
deal more pleasure. My agent will have handed you three 
hundred dollars (gold) for the two beautiful limbs. 
I am, dear sir, with respect, 
DON AURELIO ALMEIDA. 
NEW PALMER LEG IN IRELAND. 
(LEG SENT IN JUNE LAST, TO MR. LAFFERTY, DUBLIN.) 
An Irish gentleman has handed me one hundred and fifty 
dollars, and sent a leg to his brother in Ireland. [A grand 
success.] 
NEW PALMER LEG IN CANADA. 
(LEG SENT IN MAY LAST.) 
Wm. Reynolds, Esq., Treasurer of Ontario, New Dominion, 
forwarded one hundred and fifty dollars, and requested a leg 
to be sent to him. [See page 74—triumphant success.] 
NEW PALMER LEG IN SCOTLAND. 
(A PATIENT OF PROF. SYME.) 
J. H. Milne, Esq., temporarily in Chicago, as Agent of the 
“Red Star Line;” a patient of the late illustrious James 
Syme, author of the “Syme’s Operation,” has just put on the 
new Palmer foot for this operation, as done by the great 
surgeon himself, in Edinburgh. 
[See his letter, page 84.] 91 
NEW PALMER LEG IN N. P. 
The British Counsel in Nassau, has forwarded an order, 
with one hundred and fifty dollars, and the new leg has been 
sent to him. He is much pleased. 
NEW PALMER LEG IN S. AMERICA. 
Dr. Yer Meulen, Surgeon U. S. N., Callao, Peru, on U. S. 
Frigate “Onward,” has sent remittance, one hundred and fifty 
dollars, with order for the leg. [Success.] 
NEW PALMER LEG IN MEXICO. 
General Bustamente has ordered the new leg, and for- 
warded one hundred and fifty dollars. [Perfect success.] 
NEW PALMER LEG IN NEW ZEALAND. 
Surgeon Day, in Her Majesty’s service, has received the 
leg in New Zealand, and was pleased to send an honorarium, 
after finding the leg satisfactory, beyond his hopes. 
NEW PALMER LEG IN FRANCE. 
Two Safety-Socket legs have been recently sent to Prance 
upon receipt of three hundred dollars from the Honorable 
Judge Choiselat—see page 44. [A great triumph.] 
NEW PALMER LEG IN PRUSSIA. 
The Prussian Government, acting by the advice of the 
renowned Yirchou, has purchased the Palmer Models, and 
sent, as an honorarium, one thousand dollars Gold. 
NEW PALMER LEG IN THE U. S. 
Hundreds of the new legs have been sent to order, some 
to all parts of the Union. Reference will be made to persons 
who have thus received them in all the States, from Maine 
to California, and from Minnesota to Texas. 
We now see new and numerous evidences of the esteem 
in which the Palmer leg is held, at home and abroad, and 
notice what pains intelligent men take to secure it. The 92 
cases published are only a portion of those recently treated ; 
others are now going into print. 
Part Third of my book will go on with the work, and I 
intend to continue it till I can point every doubting man to 
his neighbor, who wears the leg. I think that a book about 
the size of Webster’s Pictorial Dictionary, Unabridged, will 
begin to carry conviction to the minds of unbelieving men, 
who now, on painful legs, remind us of the ungrammatical 
man who sang out, wffien in the river, “ I will be drowned— 
nobody shall save me.” 
The gentlemen who have given me the numerous letters 
for publication, and permission to refer to them, are, many 
of them, distinguished lawyers, clergymen, physicians, and 
officers of high rank. These men did not ask me to con- 
struct the limbs until they had made payment in advance. 
I mention these facts for the information of those who, being 
at a distance, wish limbs sent to them. The demand is now 
extensive, and only a limited number can be sent out 
monthly, as the skill required to make these limbs thus to 
order, so that they shall fit, and please the applicants, is 
very great, and is possessed only by the most limited num- 
ber of mechanicians, who work under my personal observa- 
tion, and receive the measures and profiles arranged by my 
own hands, to insure success. Persons residing at a distance 
can, in this way save much expense, and need not visit 
the manufactory. 
As I almost daily receive remittances from a distance, I 
should do those who thus repose such confidence a wrong, 
if I should first proceed with limbs for those who do not 
comply with my reasonable rule. My house has been known 
for twTenty-eight years, and my rule to make limbs satisfac- 
tory to my patients is always acted upon. I cannot afford 
to allow any man to have cause to complain. In all cases 
when limbs are sent, I will, with much pleasure, reconstruct 
them free of charge, if not found fully satisfactory on first 
trial; and after trials persons can send the legs or come. It 
will be seen, by letters herein published, that entire success 
in pleasing my patients results from the practice of sending 
limbs to all parts of the world, and that I have honorable 
references thoughout the hemispheres. 93 
A WEDGE OF TRUTH STRUCK. 
I have been brought to acknowledge the new theory, by 
witnessing and feeling the almost mystical transformation of 
mutilated limbs, and my argument shall be the inexorable 
logic of sturdy steps, which all may witness, and the muti- 
lated shall feel, in a return to the true stand-point of action 
and argument. I will ask for the tenderest stump (when 
healed) than can be produced, and stake my reputation on 
success in such a case. Who will present it ? 
I have before presented extracts from important reports, 
and from the great works on surgery, to show the steps by 
which the present condition of the art has been reached, be- 
lieving the record will aid the reader in forming a just esti- 
mate of the practical experiments formerly and recently 
made, by which, at last, an unexampled advance is well 
established. The mutilated, numbering about one hundred 
thousand in America, cannot afford to allow a season to pass 
as former centuries passed, without gaining the true support, 
which will add so much to their comfort; nor can they afford 
to allow a matter wThich so much concerns them to first pass 
the ordeal of organized wisdom, in the great centres of scien- 
tific knowledge. The masses cannot afford to allow persons who 
have less need of it to monopolize it. Deliberative, disinter- 
ested and critical scientific bodies will act in this matter, 
but they are so slow in disclosing new truths, that the 
children often reap benefits that belong to the fathers. 
Will you, mutilated readers, pause in doubt and pain, or will 
you act and secure the comfort you seek ? A “ wedge ” of 
truth has now been struck. I intend to follow up the blows, 
and drive it to the head, if it split all ancient and modern 
theories in the art. 
Legs and Sockets will be fitted in the future the same as 
in the past, for all who desire such, and in all cases the 
Patent Safety-Socket will be so made and inserted that a part 
or the whole of the weight can be sustained, just as it has 
hitherto been done; and the Socket can be readily put in, or 
taken out by the wearer, at his pleasure, with no damage to 
the leg, which without it will be the same as it has been in 
the past, only much improved in many parts of the me- 
chanism, and made lighter. 94 
PRINCIPAL OFFICE 
OF THE 
PALMER LIMBS, 
No. 1609 Chestnut St., 
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. 
[A Retreat, quiet as the Home.] 
This well-planned and commodious edifice was erected 
and equipped for the work, at an expense approaching one 
hundred thousand dollars, with facilities for one hundred 
mechanicians. A large stock and expensive machinery are 
necessary, and always on hand. The materials, if not well 
prepared long in advance would change by shrinkage. 
With the new patent, which in its operation now sur- 
passes all former hopes, I am able to produce such limbs 
for all my patients as could not before have been made 
by any possibility. Those who apply soon will find every 
possible advantage; but, as the orders for the new patent 
are increasing in my hands, I cannot say that many weeks 
will elapse before the pressure will again demand a distri- 
bution of my time among so many, that each one cannot 
then have the same attention as now. The best inducements 
arc offered to those who order limbs without delay. 95 
RETROSPECTION. 
Presuming that the reader will be pleased to notice some 
of the Inventor’s steps on the original Palmer leg, I will 
present an account of an ascent of Mount Lafayette, in the 
year 1859, by Rev. T. Starr King, William H. Richardson, 
Esq., Right Reverend Bishop Haven, Hr. B. Frank Palmer, 
and others; preliminary to a general review in Part Third. 
“Mount Lafayette is ascended by a bridle-path. It is next 
in height to Mt. Washington, and higher than the loftiest 
mountain in Scotland. It does not require so long a ride on 
horseback to reach the peak of Lafayette as to scale Mount 
Washington, but the average ascent is much steeper. One 
unacquainted with the mountain paths, and the trustworthy 
competence of the ponies, whose hoofs get used to striking 
fire from the primeval granite of the upper stairways, would 
imagine on the first ascent of the peak, that there was great 
danger in the expedition. On one side tremendous gorges 
sweep, and on the other the most lovely of level landscapes 
is displayed. 
When we made our last ascent of the mountain, a friend 
was of the party whom accident had robbed of one of the 
natural supports which are impartially supplied to the 
human race. His genius, however, has supplied the defi- 
ciency not only in his own case but for a multitude of others, 
whose gratitude is a noble part of his reward, by a limb 
almost as good for walking as nature furnishes, and relieved 
from numberless inconveniences and ills which we must take 
with the more supple organism of flesh and blood. He 
mounted the horse at the Profile House, and did not dis- 
mount until he could put Hr. Palmer’s artificial leg, in com- 
pany with the real limb, which nature had given him, on the 
rocky apex of Mt. Lafayette. We could add graceful testi- 
mony to the attractions of Franconia, as well as to the versa- 
tility of our companion, if we could print the poem which 
he wrote on the excursion, that falls under our notice as these 
pages are passing through the press.”* T. S. K. 
♦[An account of the ascent, by Rev. T. S. King. See his Book, entitled “ The White Hills 
their Legends, Landscapes and Poetry,” published in 1859—page 130.] 96 
ASCENDING MOUNT WASHINGTON IN A STORM. 
Dr. B. F. Palmer, Rev. T. Starr King, and Win. H. Rich- 
ardson, Esq., ascended Mt. Washington, in a snow-storm, 
October, 1860. This ascent, on horseback, was made before 
the carriage-road or railroad was constructed, and the writer 
(alone on horse) approached the “ Tip-Top-House ” from the 
Alpine House, without dismounting on the way. Those 
who have scaled the summit may judge of the horsemanship 
required to face a storm of snow, so furious as to cause a 
party descending to warn us of peril and suggest a retreat. 
My genial and brilliant friends—my oracle and guide, 
led up the rugged way by which we pierced the elouds 
and rose above the storm, in such companionship as made 
the echoing glens extend a vocal welcome. “As birds of 
social feather, helping each his fellow’s flight, we soared 
into the skies ”—to the sun-crowned summit 1 Alas I the 
loved companions, the chosen friends, the charmers in life’s 
rugged road, are gone—both gone from all the haunts in the 
pathway of Time, to be seen no more this side of the Eternal 
Hills. There, may we again find happy reunion on some 
bright morning. B. F. P. 97 
third. 
A REVIEW OF TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS. 
It lias been said that there is no better way of judging 
of the future, than by the past. Concerning the advance- 
ment in my art, after acknowledging the failure to reach 
complete success hitherto (as no man has been operating on 
the correct plan of artificial locomotion), I am not reluctant 
to show how far in the right direction my former labors ex- 
tended. By the record of what has been done in twenty- 
eight years I will stand, while asking attention to a propi- 
tious step now taken forward. From this record I will 
present a choice selection of statements, and articles, published 
from the year 1846 to 1878; also, I will present the honored 
names of many eminent surgeons, in America and Europe, 
among those who first heralded my original invention, all 
of whom, now living, are still my patrons. The articles and 
names now republished will not comprise more than one in 
one hundred of the whole number on file, as much new mat- 
ter, of still higher value, remains to be added; and, having 
reached page ninety-seven without getting on far with 
my book, I am reminded that there must be somewhere a 
limit to the pages; hence, there can be only a few selections 
from many thousands, equally valuable, which I should be 
glad to present if space allowed. 
These selections will, however, establish the following 
facts; First. This invention was the first Patent leg ever 
made in the country, and the best false leg known was set 
aside, by the medical profession generally, and their muti- 
lated subjects recommended to adopt the Palmer leg. 
Second. The “place of election,” in amputating legs, was 
changed by the adoption of this leg, and long stumps were 
saved instead of short ones, when practicable, at my sug- 
gestion first made in 1846 in this country, and in England 
and France in 1851. Third. The Palmer leg, as made by 
myself, or by others, who have attempted to imitate it, has 
been used by nearly all who have purchased patent 98 
legs for more than a quarter of a century, and at the end 
of this time is more sought for than it was at the begin- 
ning. Fourth. Those few persons who have been induced to 
try other patents, have, after trial, come back and again given 
preference to the Palmer leg. The old invention has been so 
universally appropriated by other makers, that the unin- 
formed patient, in hunting about, finds it so displayed by 
others, before he finds me in some cases, as to cause him to 
suspect me of being the copyist, because he never sees my 
models in a show-window (where I do not put them), and no 
person sees my patients on bare legs, walking about the 
shambles with their pantaloons rolled up, trying to secure a 
customer—for a consideration. A lady from Illinois, who is 
just now having a limb fitted, went all about the streets, 
passing my house in pursuit of it. She found several show- 
windows, (with a poor show for her, as she thought) and 
finally reached my quiet office, and was willing to pay a higher 
price than was asked elsewhere. 
A word about showing models and signs on the street. 
The true artist does not trust to the display of his signs, and 
a lady of sensibility does not wish to have her steps on the 
new foot criticised, when she first goes in or out of the 
studio, by inquisitive gazers about show-windows (that dis- 
play such things as are made elsewhere). The practitioner 
who has something to do, cannot afford to be constantly 
molested by persons who will call where such things are 
displayed, out of mere curiosity, while he is always happy 
to wait upon those who have a laudable object in calling. 
My work is my sign, and it may be seen in every part of the 
world; my references are all peoples of all lands. I do not 
deem it important to refer to an individual, but (because of a 
custom that might well be dispensed with), I make respect- 
ful mention of many honorable persons, by permission, who 
have for many years known my work. 
I have not asked a single surgeon for a letter to publish 
concerning the New Patent. All professional men concur, 
with an acclamation of approval, as soon as they see the leg, 
and it would be invidious to single out a few, to mention 
now, as I did when coming before the public in 1846. All 
that I had then done was on trial, and not, as now, the tried 
and unquestionable production. 99 
THE ARMY ON PALMER LIMBS 
If the reader should, with me, re-enter the long lines of 
the great army of “ broken soldiers ” on my muster roll, 
and attempt to notice the evolutions of those who have fought 
in the great battle of life, on patent legs, we should 
first notice one who gave his own leg in the early life-battle, 
and mounted the original Palmer leg, in March, 1846, at 
twenty-two years of age, in time of the Mexican War; then, 
glancing down the column, formed from 1846 to 1874, we 
should again behold him, in middle-life, mounting the new 
leg, and feeling as elastic as when he first started oif at the 
head of the Palmer Legion, more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago. 
We should, in our review, particularly notice the closing 
ranks of the first company in 1846,—less than one hundred 
-—all joyous in spirit and active in limb, moving on with 
alacrity, battling for the new invention—we should next 
see the rapidly-closing ranks, from 1847 to 1861, forming 
solid regiments, then—a sudden pause, when the great Civil 
War, in a day, with another army, divided our lines as it did 
our Union, and suspended the work of peace in half the 
land, while in the other half, the drum-roll called to field- 
duty those who had before been honorably retired from 
service, after losing human legs in former battles—then 
witness the loss, in the Great War, of twenty thousand 
human limbs; and, finally, behold the soldiers again springing 
forward to active duty, on Palmer limbs, until the end of 
the strife. 
I will not here, and now, allude to individuals who 
have won more than national renown while using the limbs, 
in War and in Peace, but elsewhere the honorable names of 
many will appear on my roll. Our army of heroes, and hero- 
ines, spans three decades of time, and two hemispheres. It 
includes the American, English, Erench, German, Spanish, 
Russian, Turkish, African, Indian—people of all nations, 
ages and conditions. The benefit is not limited to race or sex. 
It is enjoyed by persons eighty years ,of age, and children from 
two years old to the years of adolescence. Persons 
known and unknown, in the walks of life, may be found in the 
promiscuous army, and seen on active duty—many, many 100 
thousands—-outnumbering the entire American army of 
General Winfield Scott, which victoriously entered the 
City of Mexico, in 1846, and raised the Stars and Stripes 
over the Halls of the Montezumas. This Great General fur- 
nished, by battle, my first war-patient, and with his success- 
ful army might have been seen the first advance picket on 
the original Palmer leg, then first patronized by President 
Polk, in War. That soldier returned with his Palmer leg, 
and it may be still remembered that a comrade brought 
with him General Santa Anna’s leg, which was in my 
possession after the war. 
After reviewing the great army, marching and counter- 
marching in memory’s field, I find the ranks crowded with 
gallant men, and lovely women, who, by good deeds, have 
made fair “ foot-prints on the sands of time—whose 
achievements have been grand and glorious,—not only suc- 
cessful in their steps on the Palmer foot, but also in all of 
their life-steps. I know not whom to mention secondly, in 
the epistolary review. In this exigency I have concluded 
to pass the whole formidable column with respectful, grate- 
ful salutation—thanking the men, women and youth, who 
gave me early and cordial support, as well as those of a later 
date for whom I make more room in these pages—not by 
choice, but because the march of mind demands something 
new and startling. The man of the period is not satisfied 
with the best thing on earth unless it has been improved 
within the last year. The Palmer leg has been thus im- 
proved triumphantly, and is ready for the coming man. 
In the present condition of the art, how unlike are the 
materials at hand—masses on masses—when compared with 
those found in 1846. Then the first certificate of a gentle- 
man, and a lady, wearing the Palmer leg, was sought and pub- 
lished, to establish the fact that the leg would go, and every 
paper that could fairly be had was presented. How, I am 
overwhelmed with thousands on thousands of letters, 
reports and testimonials, from all parts of the world,—each 
one of which might reasonably establish a belief—and the 
question is not how shall I obtain testimonials, but how 
shall I withhold a mass of valuable evidence before me, in 
making up the book, which might become larger than any 
public document ever published. 101 
Leaving, but not deserting, the old army, I must make 
a detour in the march—a grand epistolary raid. When 
General Sherman, leaving Washington, had started on his 
great Southern raid, President Lincoln was asked where Sher- 
man would “ come out.” The reply was : I only know where 
Sherman “ went in.” So I only know that I am well in 
the work, but cannot say where, when, or with whom I 
shall come out. But, like Sherman’s, my army will emerge. 
In thus starting out, a second time, with a new invention, it 
is interesting to notice the effect of the former one on the 
popular mind, as well as to notice its value to the mutilated 
army. What was thought to be “ impossible,” in 1846, is 
thought to be a very simple operation in 1874. The original 
invention raised the standard of judgment so high, that a 
limb which once seemed complete, now, being the common 
standard of merit and comparison, has become so much a 
thing of accorded superiority, as not longer to seem entitled 
to special consideration. Like any good thing, after long 
use, its merits are less noticed than its faults. A man will 
now walk twenty-five miles in a day, on a Palmer leg, with- 
out thinking it of any great use to him, and if at night he 
is tired and sore, he will only murmur because he could not 
comfortably have gone twice as far, and he may censure the 
leg-maker for his inability to add the other twenty-five 
miles. This is no fancy sketch, as hundreds will testify. 
Thus men and legs move onward. 
I now come forward with strong sentences, but without 
skill in the use of language sufficient to match, and ade- 
quately herald a triumph in art which is so grand as to 
transcend belief, and bring in question the best successes of 
the past. In the past we have, as builders, formed the pil- 
lars of our tabernacle well, shaping them with scrupulous 
skill, but we have not sought the right foundation to set 
them on ; hence our building has not been equal to the stress 
of the elements—it totters. Ignorant of the most vital 
knowledge, and most essential, art has not been fully 
subservient to nature. Man sought another—not the 
Divine plan, hence the success was long incomplete. We 
must return to the great work, on the right plan, and reset 
the tottering pillars of our tabernacle upon the true founda. 
tion. Pride of opinion, and the authority of long usage, 102 
must yield to the advancing steps of Science and Art, now 
come to the aid of wounded Humanity. Compensatory Art is 
no longer in conflict with Nature. If, in his peculiar work, 
each artificer shall at last, by dint of life-long experiments, 
succeed in learning “ how little can he known ” of the great 
aggregate of wisdom, he will thus establish one fact, and 
gain one true step towards the fountain of knowledge; but 
he will not at once convince his fellows, that (if they will 
keep on learning) they too will arrive finally at the same 
valuable truth. The great Ambrose Paifi saw the old mas- 
ters in the Surgical art, plunge the end of the stump into a 
pot of boiling pitch after amputation. They told him that 
was the true way to stop bleeding. Parti thought it 
strange that so barbarous a practice could be the proper 
method, in humane hands. lie took a simple thread,—tied 
the arteries—overturned the theories of his predecessors, 
and was by his associates denounced for it—even by his 
great rival, M. Pettit, who still stuck to the pitch. Then 
the noble Pare, in the fullness of his great heart, with his 
own hand recorded—“ lam ashamed of my masters.” 
It would seem as if there ought to be some way to con- 
vince men of a truth so simple, so important, and so easily 
understood as the one I am laboring to establish. But 
now, as in all former time, it is useless to think of getting 
men to recognize any new and valuable truth short of a 
struggle with their prejudices. I purpose making such a 
record as shall leave the unbelievers no satisfactory stand- 
point for argument or locomotion. 
GREAT AMERICAN SURGEONS. 
[Three letters are here presented, as representative testi- 
monials in the early days of the Palmer leg, received from 
the great surgeons of Boston, Hew York and Philadelphia. 
The first letters from Hrs. Townsend, Mott and Mutter, date 
back to 1846.] 
Boston, June 12, 1849. 
The undersigned having witnessed the successful use of 
the artificial limbs manufactured by Mr. B. F. Palmer, very 
gladly recommend them to persons who have suffered the 
loss of a lower extremity. The very ingenious mechanism 103 
which is applied in this invention, produces an imitation of 
the shape and motion of a living member, much more suc- 
cessful than would seem possible. We recommend them 
with pleasure and confidence to those who may need such 
assistance. 
JOHN C. WARREN, M. D. 
GEO. HAYWARD, M. D. 
JACOB BIGELOW, M. D. 
S. D. TOWNSEND, M. D. 
J. MASON WARREN, M. D. 
Surgeons and Physicians to Massachusetts General Hospital. 
D. H. STORER, M. D. 
Philadelphia, March 10, 1856. 
B. Frank. Palmer, Esq., etc. 
My Dear Sir :—I am really much gratified to find that 
your ingenuity and perseverance have at length accom- 
plished what the profession has so long waited for in vain,— 
a useful Artificial Hand and Arm. The models you showed 
me are worthy companions of your unequaled Artificial 
Legs. After many years’ observation of the latter, lam 
compelled to repeat, what I have already expressed in writ- 
ing, that neither in Europe nor America is there an instru- 
ment of the kind, in my judgment at least, worthy of com- 
parison with them. 
Trusting that you will continue your efforts to relieve 
your fellow-creatures, 
I remain very sincerely yours, 
THOMAS D. MUTTER, M. D., LL.D. 
Professor of Surgery, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. 
New York, Jan. 4,1851. 
I have examined carefully the artificial leg invented by 
Mr. B. Frank. Palmer, of this country. Its construction is 
simple, and its execution is beautiful; and, what is most 
important, those who have the misfortune to require a sub- 
stitute for the natural limb, and the good fortune to possess 
it, all concur in bearing practical testimony to its superior- 
ity in comfort and utility. 
VALENTINE MOTT, M. D., LL.D., 
Professor of Surgery in the New York University. 104 
Indorsed by, 
WILLARD PAEKEE, M. I)., Professor of 
Surgery, New York City. 
ALDEN MARCH, M.D., Prof, of Surgery, 
Albany Medical College. 
J. M. CAENOCHAN, M. D., Professor of 
Surgery, New York. 
W. GIBSON, M. D., Professor of Surgery 
University of Pennsylvania. 
B. F. BACHE, M. D., U. S. Naval Hospital, 
New York. 
JOSEPH PANCOAST, M. D., Professor 
of Anatomy, Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege, Phila. 
FRANK H. HAMILTON, M. D., Professor 
Surgery, University of Buffalo. 
B. HOWARD RAND, M,D., Prof. Jeffer- 
son Med. College, Pbila. 
WM. H. YAN BUEEN, M. D., Prof, of 
Anatomy, University of New York. 
CHARLES A. POPE, M. D., St. Louis Uni- 
versity. 
JAMES E. WOOD, M. D., Surgeon to Bel- 
levue Hospital. 
STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., Surgeon to Bel- 
levue Hospital. 
S. D. GROSS, M.D., Louisville University, 
(now PhiladelpMa.) 
J. W. HAMILTON, Prof. Surg. in Starling 
T. M. MAEKOE, M. D., Surgeon to New 
York Hospital. 
Medical College, Columbus, Ohio. 
J. H. ARMSBY, M. D., Professor of Anat- 
omy, Albany Medical College. 
J. KNIGHT, M. D., Prof, of Surgery, Med- 
ical Institute, Yale College. 
CHARLES D. SMITH, M. D., Surgeon to 
Bellevue Hospital, New York. 
P. A. JEWETT, M. D., Phys. & Surg. Gen. 
Hospital Soc., New Haven. 
DANIEL AYRES, M. D., Surgeon of Long 
Island College Hospital, Brooklyn. 
R. L. HOWARD, M. D., Professor of Sur- 
gery, Columbus, Ohio. 
N. R. SMITH, M. D., Prof, of Surgery, 
Baltimore, Md. 
LOUIS BAUER, M. D., Surgeon of Long 
Island College, Brooklyn. 
SAMUEL W. THAYER, Jr., Professor of 
Anatomy, University of Vermont. 
BENJAMIN S. SHAW, M. D., Physician 
and Superintendent, Mass. Gen. Hos- 
pital. 
GEORGE C. BLACKMAN, M. D., Profes- 
sor of Surgery, Med. College of Ohio. 
HENRY J. BIGELOW, Professor of Sur- 
gery, Harvard University. 
THOMAS HARRIS, M. D., Chief of the 
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. 
Prof. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harvard University. 
In addition to the foregoing—my patrons of long time 
ago—l will now mention others, some of whom have more 
recently risen to the highest positions by virtue of great 
learning and skill. As they have long known the merits of 
my inventions, and are now among the most active and 
efficient surgeons, I find pleasure in adding their names to 
the honored list which they adorn: 
Prof. D. Hayes Agnew, University of Penn., Phila, 
“ P. G. Smith, “ “ “ “ 
“ W. H. Pancoast, Jefferson Medical College, Phila. 
“ S. Weir Mitchell, “ “ “ “ 
“ W. H. Mussey, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
“ E. B. Stevens, Syracuse, H. Y. 
Dr. Horton Folsom, Physician and Surgeon, Mass. Gen 
eral Hospital, Boston. 
These are only a few of the eminent surgeons who now 
patronize my houses, and I venture to assume that in every 
town of considerable size, a good physician can be found by 
all persons in want of limbs, who will, from a personal 105 
knowledge, recommend the Palmer limb and aid in taking 
measures. I am under obligations to many surgeons, in 
all parts of the country, for such kind and valuable service. 
Other names will be added in a second edition. 
SURGEON GENERAL’S BUREAU. 
As the Surgeon General’s Bureau has furnished many 
thousands of cases (officers and soldiers), reference is respect- 
fully made to General Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon Gen- 
eral, U. S. A., also to Assistant Surgeon General C. H. 
Crane, and to Surgeon J. S. Billings, U. S. A., of the Sur- 
geon General’s Staff, Washington, U. C. The new Palmer 
leg is in use in the Surgeon General’s office. 
U. S. PATENT OFFICE. 
For valuable information concerning the New Patent, I 
refer to the Hon. M. H. Leggett, Commissioner of Patents, 
in whose Bureau are several patrons of the invention; 
also to Hr. Chas. F. Stansbury, Solicitor of Patents, who 
took this patent (and several others for limbs), and is famil- 
iar with the whole subject. Hr, Stansbury has been for 
many years connected with the U. S. Patent Office, and 
stands first in the profession, as a Solicitor of Patents in 
Washington, H. C. 
Early Reports and Honorary Awards 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, 1846. 
Palmer’s Patent Leg, in Us appearance and in its move- 
ments, so accurately resembles the natural limb as to require a 
careful examination before it can be decided to be anything else 
but the limb provided by nature. Award, a Silver Medal. 
Exhibition 1850. 
Palmer’s Artificial Leg is superior to any other ever 
constructed, and merits, for science and humanity, the highest 
testimonial of the Institute. Gold Medal. 
H. M. Reese, M.H., LL.H., Prof. H. G. Cox, M.H., 
Prof. J. M. Carnochan, M.H., S, Russell Childs, M. H., 
Judges. 106 
EXHIBITION, BOSTON, 1847. 
This invention fulfills the various requisites of a substitute 
for the lower limb as completely as any artificial machinery 
ever can. be expected to do. In imitating the various move- 
ments of the knee, ankle and foot, and the apparent reliability and 
permanence, we do not see any failure to fulfill the highest 
possible requisites. For Mr. Palmer’s successful improve- 
ment, Silver Medal. 
Report—lBs3. 
This Leg is without an important rival in this and foreign 
countries. 
We recommend a Gold Medal. 
Henry J. Bigelow, M.D., 
Luther Y. Bell, M.D., 
George Bartlett, M.D, 
Henry G. Clark, M.D., 
Winslow Lewis, MD., 
Judges. 
THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 
Hall op the Franklin Institute, Phila., Jan. 11, 1849. 
The Committee on Science and the Arts, to whom was 
referred, for examination, an artificial Leg, invented by B. 
Franklin Palmer, report: * * 
That the Artificial Leg of Mr. Palmer is superior to any 
that has yet come under their notice. It is light, strong, 
beautifully shaped, apparently very durable, self-acting in a 
greater degree than anything they have ever met with, easy 
and natural in its motion, and possesses apparently all the 
qualities desirable or attainable in such an invention. 
The Committee would recommend the award to the in- 
ventor of “ Scott’s Legacy Medal and Premium ; ” also, the 
First Premium, for his model exhibited in the late Exhibition. 
William Hamilton, 
Actuary. 
B. Howard Rand, M.D., 
Chairman Committee. 
WORLD’S GREAT EXHIBITION, NEW YORK, 1853. 
Award to Palmer, for the best Artificial Leg—Medal. 
Prof. J. Rbnwick, Chairman, Dr. Gallardet, Paris, 
“ W. Parker, New York, “ Parkman, Boston, 
“ J. M. Carnochan, “ “ Ludlow, New York. 
“ A. Clark, “ Judges. 107 
GREAT EUROPEAN SURGEONS AND SCIENTISTS. 
International Exhibition, London. 
The Jury have the honor of submitting to Her Majesty's 
Commissioners the following Report: 
In the mechanical compensation of lost parts (of the hu- 
man body,) great success has been obtained; and among the 
contrivances for supplying the loss of a lower limb, the 
admirable mechanism of Mr. B, Frank. Palmer’s Artificial 
Leg (United States, Ho. 39, p. 1435,) deserves particular 
notice. This Artificial Leg combines lightness and a suc- 
cessful imitation of the motions of the joints. 
[Prize Medal.] 
The Surgeons of Europe indorsed this report, as follows: 
LETTER OE THE GREAT ARMY SURGEOH, 
G. J. GUTHRIE, 
Ex-President of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 
Berkley Street, Berkley Square, London, 
September 30, 1851. 
B. Frank. Palmer, Esq. 
Sir: I have no hesitation in stating that I consider your 
Patent Artificial Leg to be the best invention I have yet seen ; 
the most useful and the least distinguishable from the natu- 
ral limb. 
I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 
G-. J. Guthrie. 
Indorsed by— 
Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart. 
Prof. FERGUSSON, Surg. to the Queen. 
WM. LAWRENCE, F.R.S., Pres. Roy. Col. 
Surg., and Surg. to St. Barth. Hosp. 
EDWARD STANLEY, Esq., Surgeon to St. 
Bartholomew’s Hospital. 
Gen. CAMERON, Surgeon to the Marquis 
of Anglesey. 
Dr. FORBES, London Hospital. 
SAMUEL SOLLY, Esq. 
J. HILTON, Esq. 
J. B. CURLING, Esq., Surgeon to the Lon- 
don Hospital. 
B. B. COOPEE, Esq., Surg. to St. George’* 
Hospital. 
F. SKEY, Esq., Dem. of Anat., St. Barth- 
olomew’s Hospital. 
CiESAR HAWKINS, Esq. 
JOSEPH H. GREEN, Esq., F.R.S. 
THOS. WAKLEY, Esq., Ed. Lancet. 
Sir DAVID BBEWSTER 
Mr. LUKE., London Hospital. 
I. W. TURNER, F.R.S.E. 
Dr. J. M. AENOTT. 
Mr. SHAW, Surgeon to Middlesex Hos- 
pital. 108 
The London Times, Sept. 19,1851. 
We have to introduce to the notice of the public another 
triumph of American ingenuity included in that depart- 
ment of the Great Exhibition. The Marquis of Anglesey 
will hear with a feeling of satisfaction, that if our cousins 
beat us in yacht-building, they are equally pre-eminent in 
the manufacture of artificial legs. In the latter branch of 
industry their superiority will not be grudged, and they 
really owe society some act of reparation for having intro- 
duced among us Colt’s Revolvers. The artificial leg patented 
by Dr. Palmer, is, in its way, a most admirable, ingenious, 
and philanthropic contrivance, and its invention is so re- 
markably characteristic of the country from whence it comes, 
that we cannot resist the temptation of inviting attention 
to it. The patentee in some way or other lost his leg, and 
having tried the best substitutes hitherto devised for such a 
case, like a true American, he set himself to think whether 
he could not improve upon them. His study o± the subject 
was crowned with the most striking success, and he exempli- 
fies that success in his own person by walking about almost 
without any perceptible lameness and with apparent ease 
and comfort which is truly surprising. He publishes annu- 
ally, at Philadelphia, a Journal which is entitled Palmer’s 
Artificial Leg Reporter, and Surgical Adjuvant. This periodical 
accompanied a specimen of the leg to the exhibition, and the 
Ist chapter of vol. 3., Ho. 1, we find commenced by this head- 
ing, “Fugitive thoughts on amputation.” From another 
chapter, entitled “Synopsis of the invention,” we gather 
that it is distinguished by its perfect combination of light- 
ness with strength, and by the extraordinary fidelity with 
which it imitates nature. Having closely examined it, we 
can testily to its merits on all the leading points specified, 
nor have we any reason to doubt that the enameled surface 
of this leg, as stated, “is rivaled only by the mechanism of 
nature, and that a lady may wear silk hose and slippers 
without betraying the loss she has sustained.” Dr. Palmer 
has received extensive orders for his patent in this country, 
and the public may soon expect to see timber-toed veterans 
no more stumping about Greenwich. The American Arti- 
ficial Leu cannot fail to be regarded as a great boon to 
suffering humanity. 109 
LETTER EROM PROF. SYME. 
(.Author of Syme’s Operation.) 
Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. 
lOtli. July, 1852. 
Pear Sir: I Lave the highest opinion of the “Palmer 
Leg,” and shall be very happy if you can extend the benefit 
of it to Mr. Hixson. Its merits are so generally admitted, 
that I presume my opinion is wished in regard to the partic- 
ular modification of it which was lately supplied to a patient 
of mine. Yo thing could be more satisfactory than the in- 
genious contrivance for the purpose, and I therefore have 
great pleasure in bearing this testimony. 
Very truly, JAS. SYME. 
B. Frank. Palmer, Esq., London. 
The eminent Surgeons of Paris spoke of the invention 
as follows, in the Report of the Societe de Chirurgie:, 
Of all the apparatus sent for examination, Palmer’s 
excels in form, lightness and mechanism. 
BAROY LARREY, 
Pres, of the Societe de Chirurgie, Paris. 
M. BEBOUT, 
Secretary Societe de 
M. ROUX, 
Secretary Societe de Chirurgie, 
Surgeon to Hotel I)ieu, Paris. 
M. LALLEMAYB, 
Member of the Academy of Sciences, &c. 
M. VELPEAU, 
Surgeon to Hotel Dieu, Paris. 
FRENCH SYSTEM OF SURGERY; 
ALF. A. L. M. VELPEAU; 
[With Notes and observations, by Valentine Mott, M D., Emeritus 
Professor of Surgery in the University of New York ; and addi- 
tions, by George C. Blackman, M. D., Professor of Surgery in the 
Medical College of Ohio, 1851.] 
Artificial Limbs.—After a patient has submitted to an 
amputation of his limb, he very naturally inquires of the 
surgeon, what is the best substitute he can suggest for him, 
and we know that this question has often given rise to much perplexity. As to the lower extremity,* we now have it in 
our power to furnish every desirable information upon this 
point, and for this we are indebted to Mr. B. Frank. Palmer, 
the inventor of the artificial leg which has won the admira- 
tion of the most prominent surgeons in Great Britain, 
France, and this country. 
During the Great Exhibition in London, 1851, we had an 
opportunity of inspecting the large number of artificial 
limbs there presented, and we know that there was but one 
opinion as to the vast superiority of Mr. Palmer’s invention 
to any hitherto offered. In a word, Mr. Palmer bore away 
the palm, the adjudicators being, among the rest, no less 
than the distinguished surgeon of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 
Mr. William Lawrence, and the renowned veteran of the 
Hotel JDieu, Roux, recently deceased. This, certainly, is one 
of the greatest triumphs of American ingenuity. 
We copy from a pamphlet issued by Mr. Palmer, the de- 
scription of its peculiarities, remarking, at the same time, 
that through his politeness and liberality, we are enabled to 
present to the reader an internal view of this beautiful piece 
of mechanism. We also insert the views of Mr. Palmer, which 
have special reference to the comfort and usefulness of the muti- 
lated. [Plere followed five pages on the subject.] 
*(The arm not invented till 1857). 
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF SURGERY. 
(Pp. 646 to 649', Yol. 1,1856.) 
S. D, Gross, M. D., LL.D., 
Professor of Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, Phila. 
Great improvement has of late years been effected in the 
construction and adaptation of artificial limbs, and there is 
reason to believe that the inconvenience and suffering occa- 
sioned by their use, are more frequently attributable to the 
misconduct of the surgeon, than to the want of skill on the 
part of the manufacturer of the substitute. It has been only within a comparatively recent 
period that operators have hit upon the 
correct principles of making good and 
serviceable stumps. Allanson, nearly 
three-quarters of a century ago, under- 
stood the subject much better than it 
has been understood since, if we except 
the last ten or fifteen years. He strongly 
insisted upon a long and well-shaped 
stump, and exerted himself with great 
ability, but in vain, to induce the 
profession generally to follow his exam- 
ple. The happy changes which have 
lately been introduced into this depart- 
ment of operative surgery, are, I be- 
lieve, mainly due to the manufacturers of artificial limbs, 
who, with an ingenuity and a perseverance worthy of so 
good a cause, have reduced tbe whole process to one of prin- 
ciples founded upon the study of anatomy and mechanical 
philosophy. It would be difficult to conceive of any appa- 
ratus more beautiful in its construction, or more admirably 
adapted to the end proposed, than the artificial substitutes 
of Mr. Palmer, of this city, who obtained the prize medal 
at the Great Exhibition in London, in 1851. Combining 
lightness with strength, and neatness with symmetry, they 
are worn with great comfort and satisfaction, and are 
apparently as perfect as any piece of human mechanism of 
the kind can well be made. * * * * 
I subjoin Mr. Palmer'’s instructions for the. formation of suita- 
ble stumps in amputations of the leg and thigh, as they are now 
generally acted upon by the more accomplished operators of the 
country. [Here followed the Hew Rules.] 
The Medical and Surgical Reporter, Philadelphia. 
SURGERY-COMPENSATORY ART. 
It is comparatively few years since attention has been 
specially directed to mechanical surgery. A comparison of 
the bungling, clumsy surgical appliances used years ago, 
with those now in common use, will show how rapidly im- 
provements have been introduced and adopted, and how 112 
vastly simplified are all the processes of mechanical surgery. 
The “ wooden peg ” was the best artificial leg known in the 
time of Ambrose Pare. This unsightly excrescence gave 
place to the Anglesea, and the latter to still greater improve- 
ments, until such is the perfection which this branch of 
mechanical surgery has now reached, that an inexperienced 
observer will find it difficult to decide, from the symmetry 
of the limbs and the perfection of their movements, which 
is natural and which is artificial. It would seem that in all 
essential particulars invention could produce nothing more 
perfect or better fitted for the purpose designed. 
Humiliating as may be the fact to one of the most en- 
lightened professions of the age, it is nevertheless indisputa- 
ble that this branch of surgery owes its perfection to an inven- 
tor who, at the time of making the invention, had not re- 
ceived the summum bonum of professional honors. However 
much* a knowledge of the principles and practice of the 
surgical art may aid in perfecting an artificial limb, however 
broad and inviting and open the field has been for gather- 
ing new laurels and new honors to our noble profession. 
Dr. Palmer has not only produced the best artificial limb in all 
respects the world has ever seen, but he has also revolution- 
ized, confessedly, the practice of amputations, especially of the 
pedal extremities. To-day, in our standard works upon 
surgery, and in the practice of our hospitals, “ Palmer’s place 
of election ”is the recognized law of amputations. First 
enunciated in 1846-7, opposed vehemently by leading sur- 
geons, his suggestions have reached the altitude of a decision 
from which no one appeals, in which all now acquiesce. 
One of the triumphs of the age in wffiich we live is con- 
Jl O 
summated by the combined skill, art, and experience of the 
surgeon and the surgeon-artist; the regular practitioner of 
surgery and him who has reached his honorable title* and 
position by the worth and beauty of his valuable and 
artistic invention. A mutilated arm or leg need be a 
deformity no longer. The surgeon-artist will supply the 
deficiency so completely that close observation will be re- 
quired to recognize it. 
[♦The Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on Dr. Palmer by the Western 
University of Pennsylvania.] PALMER'S PATENT 
NEW SAFETY-SOCKET ARM 
PALMER'S PATENT 
MECHANISM PERFECTED, APRIL 15, 1874.