_+Rupture Always Brought On By Weakness+_

The word _Rupture_ is _wrong_; a relic of the days when no one understood the real nature of this affliction.

In its true definition, the word means a _break_ or _tear_. And that is how this ailment got the name _Rupture_-- people used to think the muscles had broken or torn in two.

But we have examined hundreds of ruptures under the searching X-rays.

And we long ago found that rupture is _not_ a break or tear; something all physicians and surgeons now concede.

The muscles at some point have simply lost their _strength_-- lost their _elasticity_-- like a piece of old rubber which has lost its "_stretch_."

[Sidenote: The Cause Of The Weakness]

Sometimes this weakening is due to general poor health; sometimes to lack of exercise; and sometimes the weakness is inherited.

Now the bowels are always _pushing_ or _pressing_ more or less against the abdominal wall-- any one, whether ruptured or not, can plainly _feel_ that pressure when coughing or sneezing; while lifting or other exertion greatly _increases_ the pressure or strain.

When in a healthy or sound condition, the abdominal wall is _elastic_; and when the bowels push against it, the muscles which form it simply _stretch_ until the strain on them is over.

Just as when you pull at your cheek, the flesh falls back in position the instant you let go.

[Sidenote: Why The Muscles Give Way Under Strain]

But if the muscles of the abdomen are in a _weak_ condition, they can't _stand_ much strain-- can no longer _stretch_-- any quick movement is often enough to cause them to spread apart, forming an opening through which a part of the bowels _pushes out_ or _protrudes._

Now there is only one way to _overcome_ that weakened condition; only one way to get rid of rupture without undergoing the dangers of operation.

As a first essential, proper artificial _support_ must be applied at the point of rupture.

Comfortable mechanical support that can be depended upon to hold the bowels always in _place_.

Just as a broken bone must be held in place, while healing, by a bandage or plaster cast.

Dr. Birkett, of the famous Guy Hospital of London, and one of the world's most eminent medical and surgical authorities, says this:

[Sidenote: What Dr. Birkett Says]

"The expediency of judiciously pursuing the mechanical treatment of every variety of hernia (rupture) cannot be too strongly urged upon the laity by the profession. In both s.e.xes it should be carefully conducted the moment that the slightest protrusion shows itself; whether the hernia occurs in infancy, youth, middle age or at later periods of life, if properly watched and judiciously supported, it usually gives but little trouble; in many cases it is even cured. But on the contrary, if it be neglected, increase in bulk and, sooner or later, diseased states of the rupture, often leading to the death of the individual, will almost infallibly occur."

And there is only one thing in the world that can _give_ the mechanical support which Dr. Birkett and other famous physicians say is essential.

That is the right kind of _truss_.

Any system of treatment (except operation) which claims to relieve or cure rupture _without_ the use of a truss is simply a fraud.

[Sidenote: Why You Need a Truss]

The weak muscles at the rupture opening can't possibly get strong without the aid of a truss that will do what the muscles themselves are _too weak_ to do; a truss that will hold the bowels in place.

But trusses which will do _that_ even _half_ the time are mighty _scarce_.

Thousands of sufferers have tried truss after truss in _hopes_ they would finally get one that would do it; and to this day haven't found such a truss.

All trusses and "appliances" _claim_ to hold you together.

But ordinary trusses-- those with bands or belts or springs around the body, those with leg-straps, those sold by drug-stores and "Hernia Specialists"-- are absolutely _wrong_ in principle, construction and action.

They are like trousers worn without suspenders or belt-- continually slipping-- you've got to keep adjusting and "hitching them up."

The "harness" shifts or pulls the holding pads _away_ from the rupture opening.

Thus your rupture is continually coming out-- Nature never gets the ghost of a chance to start any healing process.

But even if such trusses _did_ hold the rupture in place, that _alone_ could never result in cure; couldn't even result in improvement.

Because that alone does nothing whatever to _strengthen_ the weakened muscles, or to overcome the muscle _lifelessness_, the conditions which _cause_ rupture.

No man ever made his _arm_ strong by not _using_ it.

And if a truss does nothing _more_ than hold the rupture in _place_, the _muscles_ at the rupture opening are never _used_, get no _exercise_, so they grow constantly _weaker_ instead of _stronger_.

We have had cases here at the Inst.i.tute where, for lack of _activity_, the muscles around the rupture opening had withered almost completely away. And usually, in addition to lack of use, the deadening, benumbing pressure from a wrong truss was partly responsible for that withered or deadened condition of the muscles.

We can do nothing in cases like that. Neither can an operation or anything else. It is entirely too late.

Like a man whose _arm_ has been _broken_.

While carried in a sling or plaster cast, the arm tends to lose its _strength_-- loses it through lack of use.

And if, after the bone has knit, the arm is still carried in a sling, never used, its muscles would soon _atrophy_ or become _dead_, weaken and waste away until useless.

A _doctor_ would insist that the arm be _used_ or _exercised_ as soon as the bone had knit, thus gradually restoring it to strength.

Same way with rupture. It can be _cured_ or made _better_ only by _strengthening_ the weakened muscles, gently _exercising_ them, giving them support which takes the _strain_ off them while _helping_ them do their work until, gradually, they _regain_ their _full_ strength and _need_ no help.

Yet we of the Cluthe Rupture Inst.i.tute are the only people to-day who take that physiological fact into consideration.

How to _apply_ our knowledge of that physiological fact, _how_ to exercise and thus strengthen the weak ruptured parts while at the same time _supporting_ and holding them in _place_ wasn't the easiest thing in the world to discover.

However, the Cluthe Truss or Cluthe Automatic Ma.s.sager provides a way. And is the _only_ thing ever invented that can both _hold_ the rupture and give Nature the necessary a.s.sistance in the process of _strengthening_ the weak parts.

Just _how_ it a.s.sists Nature is explained in the next chapter.