Cluthes Advice to the Ruptured | Page 4

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 sexes 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