This record shows that every severe rupture with which we have had to deal has grown into a serious case solely through the wear of some form of the belt or spring truss.

Just judge of all this by your own experience. Probably, in spite of the trusses you've been wearing, your rupture has grown constantly worse instead of better.

And then-- for the sake of comparison-- just read some of the letters you'll find at the back of this book; see the verdicts of people who have had experience with both the Cluthe Truss and with other kinds.

_+Trusses Like These Are A Crime+_

[Ill.u.s.tration: Common Elastic, or Belt Truss (Single)]

So-called "Appliances" are Usually Merely a Slight Adaptation of this Style of Truss-- Merely the Most Worthless Kinds of Trusses Masquerading under Misleading Names.

The only way to give leverage to the pad is to tighten up the belt and the leg-straps. The tighter they are, the farther they pull the pad away from the rupture opening. The leg-straps pull the pad down on the pelvic bone, where its pressure squeezes the life-giving spermatic cord.

Whenever the wearer coughs, sneezes or is under strain, the bowels leave their natural position, working out and in through the rupture opening (due to flexibility and stretching of straps), and the bowels when out are repeatedly pressed between the pelvic bone and the pad.

The Cruel Spring Truss

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It is impossible to keep the spring truss in position. Due to the force of the springs around the waist, the pads dig against the pelvic bone with terrible pressure, sapping the vitality. The previous chapter shows how most ruptures grow constantly worse when trusses like these are worn.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Dotted lines in lower ill.u.s.tration show Spring Truss coiled up before applied. Try to hold springs apart as when on the body as shown for half a minute. Then you will know what criminal pressure the spring truss gives.

_+Law Should Stop the Sale of Drug Store Trusses+_

We believe the day will soon come when laws will be pa.s.sed forbidding any one either to fit or sell trusses without a legal license.

Just as physicians, surgeons and dentists must all have licenses. So must oculists and opticians, in most states. Also druggists, before they can fill prescriptions.

And, unless a man has made a specialized study of rupture-- unless he has a thorough knowledge of it-- he should no more be allowed to sell or fit trusses than a schoolboy should be allowed to practice medicine.

Ruptured people seriously risk their health when they trust their cases to any one who hasn't made a thorough, specialized study of rupture.

That is almost as dangerous as having a prescription filled by an inexperienced clerk, instead of by a registered pharmacist. For a wrong truss can cause immense harm.

[Sidenote: Trusses Should Be Sold Only Under License]

When the time comes when trusses can be sold only under license, we'll see most of the self-styled "Hernia Specialists" driven out of business.

We'll also see an end to the selling of "stock" trusses by general Mail-Order houses where an order for a truss is handled in exactly the same way-- and often by the same man-- as an order for groceries or hardware.

And, when that time comes, mighty few drug-stores will be able to sell trusses.

Let us show why.

Take the following as an example:

A man might _think_ he had only a bad cold.

And might go to a drug-store.

Now, a druggist doesn't pretend to know _disease_-- he simply knows _drugs_.

So about all the druggist could do would be to hand out some patent medicine-- some cure-all.

But if the man went out to a good _physician_--

The _physician_ might find, after asking a few questions and thus making a diagnosis, that the patient had _La Grippe_, or _Pneumonia_, or _Pleurisy_ (instead of merely a _cold_, as the patient _thought_).

The physician would find out what the patient _needed_, then write a specific prescription-- and seldom the same prescription for any two patients. For the requirements would always _differ_.

Or a man might have poor _eyesight_.

He might go to an _optician_.

Now, an _optician_ doesn't know much about _eyes_-- _he_ has made a special study of _lenses_-- _he_ merely _fits_ gla.s.ses-- just as a _druggist_ merely _fills_ prescriptions-- neither pretends to _diagnose_ or _prescribe_.

And an _optician_ is just as likely as not to fit a _near_-sighted man with _far_-sighted gla.s.ses.

[Sidenote: A Truss Fitter Should Know as Much About Rupture as an Oculist About the Eyes]

But if the man with poor eyesight goes to an _oculist_--

The _oculist_ finds out what the _trouble_ is-- and what kind of gla.s.ses are _needed_-- then _prescribes_ that kind of gla.s.ses.

And then the _optician fits_ the man according to the _oculist's prescription_. Just as a _druggist_ fills a _physician's_ prescription.

Now our method of fitting you by mail is precisely like the physician's method.

From your answers to the simple questions we ask on our information blank, we first decide the _needs_ of your case-- then we _prescribe_-- then we _fill_ our prescription by making especially for your case exactly the kind of truss you need.

A physician never asks _you_ what _kind_ of medicine _you want_-- he _prescribes_ for you the kind which _he_ knows you _need_.

But if you go to a _drug-store_ for a truss, the clerk behind the counter asks you what _kind_ of truss you _want_!

You must be your _own_ doctor.

[Sidenote: Druggists Know Nothing about Rupture]

Neither the drug clerk nor the druggist knows enough about _rupture_ to know what kind of _truss_ you _need_.