A sixteenth-century iron arm: two figures, including a cross-section. Line engraving by J. Skelton after S.R. Meyrick.

An arm in the collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire. "The armourers, as the most skilful workmen of former times, were employed in operations similar to those of surgical instrument makers, among which were contrivances for supplying the loss of limbs. A few of these are still preserved in antient mansions. The family of Clephane, at Carslogie near Cupar in Scotland, have an iron hand without a thumb, the fingers of which move at the knuckles. It is attached to three flat bars which, by means of a hoop, were fastened on the arm just below the elbow. Tradition says it belonged to a laird of the place, who received it from a King of Scotland in consequence of having lost his hand in the service of his country. An engraving of it will be found in the Border Antiquities of Scotland. The iron arm of the famous Götz or Gottfried of Berlichingen, born in 1481 and who died in 1562, preserved at Iaxthausen where he resided, is renowned throughout Germany. A description, with explanatory plates, was published at Berlin in 1815, from which it appears not to have reached higher up the arm than that of Carslogie. It was manufactured at Heilbron on the Neckar. Götz was a warrior of great prowess and took a prominent part in all the conflicts of his time, particularly in the war of the peasants of Franconia and Swabia, against the bishop and nobles, and his life written by himself presents a curious picture of the age. Goethe has ably dramatized the principal events. The specimen in the collection at Goodrich Court, though not so complicated, as the fingers and thumb have only joints at the knuckles, so strongly resembles this in the details of contrivance that we need not hesitate to assign it to the same manufactory. It was intended to supply the place of the right arm and to be attached to the pauldron of a suit of armour, on which account it was sufficient that the hand grasped a weapon, that the arm would turn round below the pauldron and that it would bend at the elbow. The mechanism for that purpose is better shewn in the plate than can be expressed in language. Fig. 1.—The exterior of the arm, from which it is evident that the aid of the left hand was requisite. Fig. 2.—A supposed section to shew in what manner the springs and levers are placed to produce the desired object."—Meyrick, loc. cit.