Greville Chester Great Toe, 1000 BC – The World's Oldest Prosthesis

Journalist Haley Poland wrote: "Prostheses have come a long way since Captain Hook, helping a blind person see, a deaf person hear, or a person with both legs amputated walk. Once wooden limbs and glass eyes, prostheses are now electromechanical devices designed to interface with human body systems and communicate almost intelligently with human nerves and the brain."

A prosthesis is a device that replaces or augments a missing or damaged part of the body. For example, the Greville Chester Great Toe, named after the Egyptologist and antiquities collector who purchased the Egyptian artifact for the British Museum in 1881, is an artificial toe made of linen, glue, and plaster dating from 1295 BC to 664 BC. The Great Toe shows signs of wear, suggesting that it was not simply something attached after death during mummification. Another artificial toe showing wear, the Cairo Toe, was discovered on an Egyptian mummy dated to 1,069 BC – 664 BC. Jointed in three places, it was probably more functional than the Great Toe.

Medieval armor makers produced artificial iron limbs for soldiers who had lost limbs. In the 1500s, the French surgeon Ambroise Paré developed an artificial leg with a movable knee joint and a flexible, spring-operated foot. He also invented spring-loaded mechanical hands.

In modern times, new plastics and materials such as carbon fiber have made prostheses strong and light. Controlled by converting muscle movements into electrical signals, myoelectric limbs are also used today. Targeted muscle reinnervation is a method in which nerves that previously controlled the muscles of an amputated limb are surgically redirected to control the function of a working muscle. With this approach, when a person thinks of moving a particular finger, a small area of muscle, for example in the chest, may contract, and sensors placed over the muscle can then control a robotic prosthesis. For prosthetic control, neurocognitive prostheses that directly detect brain or nerve impulses are being investigated.

Description of the Article Image: A flexible leather and wooden prosthetic big toe remains attached to the foot of a 2400-year-old Egyptian female mummy whose real toe had been amputated. The foot and toe are displayed in the Cairo Museum.

Historical Figures Mentioned in the Article: Ambroise Paré (1510–1590), Greville John Chester (1830–1892)

• Previous topic: Bloodletting, 1500 BC – A Misunderstanding Lasting Thousands of Years
• Next topic: Eye Surgery, 600 BC – An Ancient Touch on the Most Delicate Organ