In a good many ways, rupture is one of the world's most terrible
burdens.
It is almost as common as poor eyesight.
And the cause of far more trouble, far greater suffering and worry.
For, while it's easy enough to get glasses that will improve the
_sight_, only a small proportion of the vast host of sufferers have ever
been fortunate enough to find anything that would even keep _rupture_
from growing worse.
And about all a doctor can do is to suggest an operation.
Though there are plenty of good physicians, plenty who can conquer other
ailments, there are mighty few who can do anything whatever for rupture.
But that is no fault of the physicians.
[Sidenote: Medical Treatment is Powerless]
This affliction, like trouble with the eyes or teeth, falls entirely
outside the physician's province; for medicines, the physician's chief
means of cure, are utterly powerless either to relieve or overcome it.
And, unfortunately, scarcely one sufferer in a hundred knows of anyone
else to turn to, with the exception of the surgeon, after finding that
physicians can give no relief.
For the proper treatment of rupture has received little attention as a
specialized profession.
Scientific treatment of the eyes and of the teeth have both become
special professions; you'll find good oculists and good dentists in
nearly every town.
But, in all America, the Members of the Cluthe Rupture Institute are
probably the only men who have honestly and conscientiously taken up the
scientific study and treatment of rupture as their exclusive profession.
There have always been plenty of places where a ruptured man could go
for a truss; surgical supply houses, truss manufacturers, truss dealers,
drug-stores, etc. But at these places, though their intentions are good,
the men who undertake to fit you have made no special study of rupture,
and therefore can do little or nothing for you.
And the trusses they give you, because not based on a scientific study
of rupture, don't make proper provision for your requirements.
Then many sufferers, in their search for relief, have been handicapped
by wrong ideas about rupture.
[Sidenote: Many Wrong Ideas About Rupture]
There has grown up a general impression that rupture is something to be
ashamed of.
But a badly mistaken impression.
For the plain fact is that rupture, if you don't let it go till
complications set in, merely indicates a weakness of certain muscles,
and is no more to be ashamed of than a weak stomach or deafness, or poor
eye-sight.
Such wrong ideas-- and the false modesty they have bred-- have made
rupture a tabooed subject; one to be talked about in whispers, one to be
discussed with blushes.
This lack of frank discussion-- lack of light on the subject-- has kept
people in the dark.
So the majority of sufferers haven't known just what was needed; in
seeking relief they have had to trust largely to luck.
That is why rupture has heretofore been such a terrible handicap.
[Sidenote: The Misery It Has Caused]
It has ruined the health of hundreds of thousands, simply because they
couldn't find anything that would do any good. Kept them from getting
much enjoyment out of life, sapped their strength and vitality, left
them more or less helpless, robbed them of the ability to provide for
themselves and families.
It has probably kept more people from doing their best work than any
other one affliction.
It has kept many from doing any kind of work whatever.
It has cheated American workingmen-- all those who have been its
victims-- out of vast sums of wages. For there's a big difference
between what a badly ruptured man can do and earn, and the earnings
of one who is sound and strong.
Some employers won't even hire a man if they know he is ruptured--
afraid he'll have to be so careful of himself that he can't do a good
day's work.