This handbook gives to the layman facts regarding the history, construction and use of artificial limbs, which may be helpful to persons in need of them or those who advise the limbless ones and, second, it presents to the surgeon some of the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of amputation stumps, from the point of view of the maker of artificial limbs.
Better cooperation between the surgeon and the appliance-maker would be of much benefit to the person who has lost a limb, and it is the hope of Faries that a better understanding of the part played by artificial limbs in the economic rehabilitation of the injured and closer cooperation between the surgeon who amputates and the prosthetist who furnishes a substitute for the missing member will be brought about.
The importance of wearing an artificial substitute—especially for the lower limb—is not generally recognized. It eliminates the