ACCORDING to ancient history, the Persian warrior Hegesistratus escaped from his enemies in 484 BC by cutting off his own foot to escape his shackles. The soldier later took to wearing a wooden foot. If the tale is true, this would be the first recorded use of a prosthetic limb.
Artificial legs, arms and hands – often hooks – followed. But it took two millennia for the next major advance to emerge, when French army surgeon Ambroise Pare designed a more natural “articulated”, or jointed, leg in 1529. The prosthetic leg had made the technological leap from rigid pole to…
