Disability and Prosthetics in Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century England

This chapter examines the ways in which prostheses were used to treat a variety of diseases and injuries and analyses the ways in which representations of prosthesis-wearing amputees shaped cultural responses to disability. It explores developments in prosthetic technology as a response to sickness and injury. The chapter discusses the variety of cultural meanings associated with prosthetics in the past. During late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, prosthetics were becoming increasingly commercialised, but manufacturers retained the 'craft' status that had long characterised makers of medical technologies. Beyond the advertisements of specialist manufacturers, prosthetic limbs had a wider cultural visibility in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century England. Representations of prosthetics indicate the powerfully gendered meanings of disease and disability in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England. Physical disability took many different forms in eighteenth-century England, but arguably its most conspicuous manifestation was the wooden-legged amputee.