National Leg and Arm Company - 1865 dated 500 Shares Stock Certificate - Unique Vignette of Sodiers with Amputations - Only a Few Have Survived of This Important Stock

“A number of technological innovations occurred during & shortly after the American Civil War. Among these were significant improvements in artificial limbs & the means of providing them to soldiers who needed them. Dr. Hasegawa has thoroughly researched the subject & shown how clever design & creative use of the available materials transformed artificial limbs from crude devices such as peg legs to lightweight, strong, multifunctional prostheses. He also tells of the social & political revolution that provided the means to pay for & distribute them, usually at little or no cost to the maimed soldiers. In my opinion, this book is the definitive reference on Civil War artificial limbs.” —F. Terry Hambrecht, M.D., senior technical advisor to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine & former head of the Neural Prosthesis Program, National Institutes of Health (U.S.A.) Southern Illinois university press www.siupress.com Jacket illustration: Private Columbus G. Rush, 21st Georgia Infantry, who had both legs amputated at the thigh by Union surgeons.

The last board before the war’s end—composed of Surgeons James Simons, Henry Stewart Hewitt, & B. A. Clements—met from March 15 to May 5, 1865, & was charged w/ testing “each model as far as practicable before recommending its adoption by actual use upon patients in Hosp.” It evaluated legs from twenty-six makers & arms from sixteen, & its recommendations resulted in the list of approved suppliers being supplemented on May 13, 1865, by several other makers: Richard Clement, Marks, & the Salem Leg Company (George B. Jewett) for artificial legs; John Condell & the National Leg & Arm Company for artificial arms; & Hudson & Kolbe for apparatus for resection. The circular showing all the approved devices listed them in order of quality as determined by the board; Bly’s ball-and-socket leg, for example, was the 39 good & serviceable limbs top-rated leg, & Marks’s was the lowest. Soldiers were responsible for paying the portion of the listed manufacturer’s price that exceeded the government allowance of $75 for a leg & $50 for an arm or an apparatus for resection. The devices priced higher than the government allowance were Bly’s ball-and-socket leg ($120) & the arms of John Condell ($150), I. M. Grenell ($75), & the National Leg & Arm Company ($80). Marks, who asked $65 per leg, was the only maker whose price was less than the government allowance. Palmer’s arm, which was not submitted for evaluation, no longer appeared on lists of approved devices. Manufacturers approved in 1866 included the American Arm & Leg Company, Monroe & Gardiner, & Hiram A. Kimball for artificial legs & Kimball for artificial arms.15 The original procedures established by Hammond were refined throughout the war. The requirement that an amputee admitted to a designated hospital be furnished only by the manufacturer assigned to that institution appears to have been dropped by March 1863. Read more at https://dokumen.pub/mending-broken-soldiers-the-union-and-confederate-programs-to-supply-artificial-limbs-1nbsped-9780809331314-9780809331307.html

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