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Especial ingenuity has been devoted in France to the design of apparatus for agricultural workers in order to assist the effort to put back on the land just as many men as possible whose experience has been in farming. Even men with both arms amputated have been refitted for this work.

There are other arm devices for general use which do not resemble arms. One is a universal hook which will perform a wide variety of tasks. Another, invented and developed by a man who is himself handicapped by double arm amputation, consists of a holder in which is a general utility hook which may be replaced by knife, fork, pen, or other tool or implement. This is one of the most practical appliances for a man with both arms off.

While many of the most eminent engineers and orthopedic surgeons of Germany were engaged in the development of working arms for Industrial or agricultural employees, the best and most practical model of all was produced by a simple peasant who had lost one of his own arms in the war. The arm is named after him the "Keller Claw."

For partial paralyses and other orthopedic difficulties not involving amputation all kinds of supports, braces, and the like, of great ingenuity and in wide variety, have been devised.

The cases of crippling disability other than amputation require little comment in a book of this character, for they are treated according to standard methods of medicine and surgery. The most interesting new development is the advance in methods of "functional re-education" as it is called -- the training of injured joints, muscles, and the like back to normal movement and capacity. This treatment is now active rather than passive, that is, the patient exercises himself rather than sits quiescent with the movement induced by external force. In one set of most interesting apparatus there is a dial on every piece so that the patient can see for himself what range of movement is attained and, as it were, compete with his own record at the preceding treatment.

As regards trades suitable for cases of arm and leg amputation, there is accurately speaking no such classification possible, because the future of each man must be determined by individual considerations. A trade which might be unwise for the great majority of arm cases might in an individual instance, by reason of the man's past experience, be the best one for him to undertake. There can be made a list of trades not possible to the amputated of various types, but the converse cannot so confidently be compiled.

An approximation based on experience in re-educating arm or leg cripples can, however, be arrived at. Such is represented by a list issued by the British Ministry of Pensions. For leg amputations, among others, it lists: bootmaking, caretaker, chauffeur, domestic service, electrical work, engineering, gateman, groom, hall porter, hospital orderly, industrial work (sundry forms), munition work, milker, packer, painter, printing, railway work (varied), tailoring, telephone attendant, telegraphy, time-keeper, and watchman. For arm amputations it lists: clerical work, gymnastic instructor, messenger, porter, railway work (sundry duties), scholastic, telephone switchboard attendant, timekeeper, watchman.

A few generalizations apply. A man with an artificial leg should not be prepared for a job which will keep him standing or walking more than one-third or one-half the time. A one-armed man, if his mental capacity permits, may most successfully be trained for a clerical or desk job.

In the actual work with cripples there is no limit on originality, for each case practically entails a new economic plan. The worker in this field will discover new principles as he proceeds. There is also no limit to the fascination of the subject, for the field is still a frontier for pioneers and the satisfaction derived from putting one helpless man after another back on his feet Is very real indeed.

CHAPTER IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS

Blindness is a very serious handicap, the intensity of which cannot be minimized. This is especially the case with the loss of sight occurring in adult life as with the blinded soldier. With all his activities organized on a sighted basis, the new limitation seems crushing. Yet there is a way out of the darkness to happiness, and it is our sacred duty to help the blind veteran to find that road.

This obligation has been well stated by Eugene Brieux, who has taken a deep interest in the war blinded of France. "For some wounded soldiers our responsibility is over when their wounds are healed, but for the blind it then only begins. Blinded soldiers have been reduced to a state of disadvantage to other men; they have become again children, before whom stretches the possibility of a happy life, but who must be initiated into this new life. They have need of treatment other than physicians can give, of other aid than consolation and kindness. They need to be prepared for their new life -- to be armed for the struggle upon which they are entering. It is true that they enter the struggle less enfeebled than one would think, far less than they themselves believe, but their capacities are of a different kind from what they were before, and the period of adaptation is hard." During this period, those privileged to care for the blinded soldier will need all the tact and skill at their command.