previous next

Hand, Arti-fi′cial.

A prosthetic member to be attached to the stump of the forearm, and having fingers and a thumb with some capacity for grasping. The terminal portion of the artificial arm. See arm, artificial, where the subject is considered at some length. Of mere hands and wrists a few examples may be given.

A is a hand in which the steel ligatures of the fingers are applied to a transverse rod which is connected to a toothed sliding bar; the position of the bar is regulated by two sliding pawls which can be operated by the other hand, and thus the fingers can be retained in any position.

B is for an amputation of the forearm, and has cords which pass from points of attachment on the arm so as to flex or extend the metacarpus and phalanges by the flexor and extensor movements of the stump.

C C are two views of the Selpho arm, in which the spiral spring i draws the fingers f constantly towards the thumb d, and retains any article placed within the hand and between the thumb and the fingers. The artificial hand may be opened by a motion of the opposite shoulder drawing on the shoulder strap m and cord k, or by extending the artificial hand and arm. g is a metallic cross-pipe on which the fingers are constructed.

D D'D “” are views of a hand which is detachable at the wrist. The clasps issuing from the artificial stump have sliding motion to clamp any article placed between their claws. These clasps enter slots in the wrist-plate of the hand. The thumb is adjustable in two positions by means of a spring and catch, the latter being freed by a trigger.

The spring thumb has a latch for holding it open when desired, and means for releasing the thumb from the latch when required.

In E, the detachable hand is so fitted to the forearm as to admit of a natural degree of rotary motion at the wrist, and that the hand may be detached by simply unlatching and withdrawing it from the socket without the trouble and delay usually necessary in disuniting the mechanism employed in moving the fingers. In place of the hand a grasping claw, having a swiveling socket, may be attached to the arm at will.

1877.

Tufts University provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: