[Transcriber's Note: Illustrations without captions are described in the accompanying text.]





CLUTHE'S ADVICE TO THE RUPTURED

BY

Chas. Cluthe & Sons

CLUTHE RUPTURE INSTITUTE

Bloomfield, New Jersey (A Suburb of New York City)

COPYRIGHT 1912 BY CHAS. CLUTHE & SONS



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page One of the World's Most Terrible Burdens 5 Our Forty Years of Experience 9 Rupture Always Brought On by Weakness 12 How to Overcome the Weakness Which Causes Rupture 16 How Your Rupture is Kept from Coming Out 20 The Care and Attention We Give You 23 Able to Work While Being Cured 30 Don't Let Yourself be Scared into Risking an Operation 32 Why Ordinary Trusses Do More Harm Than Good 34 Law Should Stop the Sale of Drug-Store Trusses 38 Physicians Advise Cluthe Truss Instead of Operation 44 Ruptured People Swindled Out of Thousands of Dollars 46 What We Have Done for Over 290,000 Others 50 Costs More to Do Without it Than to Get it 52 The Special Advice You Get in Connection with the Cluthe Truss 57 Forms and Conditions of Rupture 60 Let Us Send You a Cluthe Truss on 60 Days' Trial 65 See How Little it Costs to Get Relief 68 Don't Let Yourself Keep on Getting Worse 70



One of the World's Most Terrible Burdens

Why So Few People Know of Anything That Will Do Any Good

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.

Rupture has kept lots of business and professional men down—

By robbing them of part of their efficiency, it has robbed them of the chance to get farther along; robbed them of money they might have made. For no man can be at his best in any capacity if his rupture is bothering him— the drain on the strength is too great.

It has interfered with the pleasures of thousands.

Deprived them of recreation, kept them from taking part in athletics, kept them from getting proper exercise because they have known of no way to escape the danger that lies in sudden movements.

It has made the lives of many women a burden; made it hard for them to do their work or to enjoy social affairs; deprived many of them of the blessings of motherhood.

It has seized upon countless children; filled their days with suffering, robbed them of childhood's happiness.

[Sidenote: Not Hard To Get Rid Of]

But in spite of all that, when taken in time, rupture is no longer a hard thing to get rid of.

So easy to overcome that many ruptured people can now be cured while working.

And those who can't be cured, can at least, unless in the last stages, keep their ruptures from giving any trouble.

The main point about rupture is that it requires very different treatment than any other ailment humanity is heir to.

Medical treatment, as everybody knows, can accomplish nothing whatever.

Surgical treatment or operation, as later explained, is usually dangerous.

There remains only one means of relief. That is mechanical treatment.

Now, hundreds of methods of mechanical treatment— trusses, "appliances," etc.— have at different times been devised.

But most of them absolutely worthless.

For to perfect a beneficial mechanical treatment requires, in addition to considerable mechanical ability, a thorough knowledge of rupture; something few have ever taken the pains to acquire.

But here at the Cluthe Rupture Institute we have had over forty years of day-after-day experience— and successful experience— in the study and treatment of nothing but rupture. And this has given us a thorough knowledge of the needs of ruptured people.

As with all the great discoveries which have done so much for suffering mankind, there were many weary years of disappointment before we finally perfected the simple mechanical treatment which has since brought complete recovery to thousands.

And, as shown in the following chapters, this simple, inexpensive way to relieve and overcome rupture is within the reach of every sufferer.

Moreover, as explained on page 65, every sufferer can easily prove its merits by trying it sixty days at our risk.



Our Forty Years of Experience

Day After Day We Have Dealt With Every Form and Condition of Rupture

Like his father and grandfather before him, Chas. Cluthe, founder of the Cluthe Rupture Institute, made his start in life in the Surgical Instrument business.

Learned his trade in the old country— over in Germany, where the world's finest surgical instruments are made.

Learned the business under the old-fashioned German apprentice system; and got a mighty thorough training, as most men do over there.

When still a young man he came to this country; and in course of time, he started up for himself.

Now, nearly all surgical instrument houses— in those days same as now— make or sell trusses.

And Chas. Cluthe soon saw the utter worthlessness of all the trusses then in existence.

[Sidenote: He Saw The Need For Something Better]

He saw what a multitude of people were ruptured. Saw the great need for something better than ordinary trusses or appliances, something better than operation.

He decided that by supplying that need he could be far more useful than by manufacturing surgical instruments.

And from that day to this— now over forty-two years— the scientific study and relief of rupture have been the one aim of his life.

That led, later on, to the founding of the Cluthe Rupture Institute.

And there are now five of us— father and four sons. For as we sons grew up, we were trained in our father's work in the field of rupture; and have become Members of the Institute.

We four sons have all had the benefit of our father's forty years of experience. And the youngest of us has now had seventeen years of individual experience.

And here, day-after-day, we have dealt with rupture in all its forms and stages.

Altogether, at this writing, we have treated, by mail and in person, over 290,000 cases.

All kinds, from infants in their mothers' arms to men and women over sixty and seventy. Among them some of the worst cases on record.

We have made impartial, fair-and-square tests of every known method of treatment.

We have had experience with all kinds of medical applications, and all kinds of mechanical appliances.

We have fitted belt and spring trusses in all their variations. We long ago found just why they all fail to hold or relieve rupture— just why they usually cause the wearer untold torture.

We have had the co-operation of some of this country's most noted physicians and surgeons.

We have studied the effects and watched the results in hundreds of operations.

We have found just why operations are frequently fatal. Why they are nearly always dangerous. And why the rupture frequently breaks out anew, after the operation apparently heals.

Every remedial means in existence for the relief of rupture has been tried.

[Sidenote: The Result Of Our Study]

And the result of all this study and experimenting was the invention of the famous Cluthe Truss and Automatic Massager.

Something so vastly different from everything else for rupture that it has received eighteen separate patents.

Something far more than just a truss; something far more than merely a device for holding the rupture in place.

Yet the simplest truss ever invented.

* * * * *

The Cluthe Automatic Massaging Truss is so utterly unlike anything else for rupture— so much more than just a truss— that sometimes we feel we should have adopted some other name.

For the country is full of worthless trusses; and so many people have tried truss after truss without being in any way benefited that they think that nothing called a truss can do any good. Although when people get an inferior article of some other kind— like clothing or shoes— they don't condemn everything similar.

This fear of anything called a truss has kept lots of people from answering our advertisements; lots of people, because of disappointing experience with other trusses, won't even take the trouble to investigate; give themselves no chance to find out about the merits of the Cluthe Truss.

We would like to have these people believe in us and have them believe in our truss; but, by being so suspicious, they lose far more than we; they lose the chance to get better, and probably the chance to get well.

We sometimes speak of the Cluthe Truss as the Cluthe Automatic Massager; both names are necessary if we would do our truss full justice.

But we have decided never to give up the word truss; in spite of the fact that its use makes it harder to get people to believe our advertisements.

We don't want to fly under false colors.

We don't want to do any of the things done by those who have worthless trusses to sell; those who have cheap contraptions which they call "appliances," "methods," etc., in order to deceive ruptured people.

If we were willing to call the Cluthe Truss by some other name, we would probably disarm much of the suspicion many people have against the word truss.

But we don't want to adopt any subterfuges. And there are now so many people wearing Cluthe Automatic Massaging Trusses, or who have worn them until cured, that simply by one man recommending the Cluthe Truss to another the prejudice against the word truss is bound to be overcome in time.



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 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 had cases here at the Institute 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 Institute 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 Massager provides a way. And is the only thing ever invented that can both hold the rupture and give Nature the necessary assistance in the process of strengthening the weak parts.

Just how it assists Nature is explained in the next chapter.



How to Overcome the Weakness Which Causes Rupture

A New Way, But Based on a Principle as Old as the Hills— A Principle Recognized by all Doctors

As everybody knows, you can make most any part of the body strong simply by exercising it.

Exercise is a wonderful thing.

Keep a child cooped up— give it no place to play— and it will probably grow up puny and sickly.

While a boy on the farm— with the big out-of-doors for a playground— is usually a picture of health.

Or take a blacksmith. He is constantly using or exercising his arms. So you'll find them as hard as nails.

While his legs— because he doesn't use them so much— aren't likely to be nearly so well developed.

A man in an office or store usually has soft, flabby, weak muscles.

But let that man take up some form of exercise, like tennis or base ball, and his muscles will soon be strong.

It is a law of Nature that our minds and muscles grow by proper use, building themselves up to meet any demands made on them.

That is why, after any sickness which leaves the body weak, doctors nearly always tell you to take plenty of exercise.

Until recent years, the only way to develop strength was by active exercise; movement of the muscles by their own force, as in walking, chopping wood or playing some game.

But nowadays there is a substitute for exercise.

[Sidenote: Massage Is a Substitute For Exercise]

Called Massage; a sort of artificial exercise; a way to strengthen muscles without using them.

In simple language, massage consists in alternately expanding and contracting the muscles by applying a gentle force externally, instead of moving them by voluntary and internal force.

Now massage— like ordinary exercise— is so strengthening that it will overcome almost any kind of weakness.

So invigorating and beneficial that many well-known physicians say the day is coming when it will be an almost universal method of cure for every trouble in any way due to weakness.

At the Vanderbilt Clinic in New York, many cases of weak ankles, weak backs, etc., have been cured by massage.

Now Rupture, as shown in the last chapter, is also a weakness.

But massage, as given at hospitals, can't be used to advantage for rupture.

Too expensive— requires an expert. And could be given only when you are lying flat on your back in bed; therefore couldn't be given very often; and it would take years for only occasional massaging to overcome rupture.

Moreover, hospital or hand massage could be used only in combination with a truss that would keep the rupture from coming out. A protrusion every day or so, as happens with most trusses, would undo all the beneficial effects of the massage.

But the invention of the Cluthe Truss— the only truss that can be depended on to prevent protrusion— makes hand or hospital massage unnecessary; it takes their place.

It massages the weak ruptured parts as well as a skilled hand-massager could, as well as could be done at a hospital. And charges nothing for giving the massage— there is no expense beyond the price of the truss.

[Sidenote: This Strengthening Massage Given Automatically]

It massages the weak ruptured parts entirely automatically or mechanically. And does it in a wonderfully simple way; the massaging device— so small it would go in a watch case— is so simple that you'll wonder when you see it how it can produce such a strengthening effect.

Keeps massaging the weak ruptured parts all day long— all without a moment's attention from you, all without keeping you from your work, all without in any way interfering with your pleasure.

And, at the same time, holds the rupture constantly and comfortably in place.

Takes all strain off the ruptured parts, rests the weakened muscles while the massage is strengthening them; just as you must rest a strained ankle— keep your weight off it— while it is healing.

Keeps you from even feeling a single one of the strains that are apt to do so much harm when other trusses are worn.

That is how this remarkable truss, while overcoming your weakness, rids work of all its dangers.

Takes away all risk of further weakening yourself or of making the rupture worse.

[Sidenote: Rids Work of All Its Dangers]

Instead, any work you do will actually help make your rupture better, actually have a healing or curative effect.

Every movement you make— in working, walking, exercising, even in breathing— so acts on the Cluthe Truss as to help produce the strengthening massage.

This massage is wonderfully soothing, like gently rubbing a bruised spot.

And is so remarkably beneficial that in about one hundred and ninety-nine cases out of every two hundred, the rupture usually begins to get better almost the day a Cluthe Truss is put on.

So remarkably beneficial that the Cluthe Truss has cured some of the worst cases of rupture on record— cured many of them even after everything else, including operation, had done no good whatever.

For this massage does for the weak ruptured parts exactly what exercise does for the arms or legs— gradually gives new strength— in most cases soon makes the ruptured parts as strong and sound as a dollar.

* * * * *

This massage, in some ways, is like Osteopathic treatment.

Which, as a cure for certain ailments, is fast taking the place of drugs and surgical operations.

Most likely you've heard or read about some of the Osteopathic cures. Nearly everybody, nowadays, has. Maybe you know of Osteopathic cures right there in your own neighborhood.

Some of the cures made in this way seem almost magical.

And it is largely because massage forms a big part of it that Osteopathic treatment does so much good, especially in many kinds of weakness.

[Sidenote: Something Like Osteopathic Treatment]

Like a weak back, or weak kidneys, or weak or worn out nerves, etc.

And there's only one reason why Osteopathic physicians can't cure rupture as easily as any other weakness.

Like hospital massage, it can be given only when you are flat on your back; and, unless a Cluthe Truss is worn— which takes the place of Osteopathic Treatment and makes it unnecessary, just as it does the hospital massage— there would be no way of preventing protrusion between treatments.

Moreover, Osteopathic treatment, like hospital massage, would be too expensive for most people. Even if given only occasionally. For Osteopathic physicians charge $3.00 to $5.00 a treatment.

But the Cluthe Truss keeps giving the massage part of Osteopathic treatment— the strengthening part of the treatment— all day long; and all without any expense, except the small cost of the truss.



How Your Rupture is Kept From Coming Out

And How the Cluthe Truss is Held in Position by Suction— No Belt, Leg-straps or Springs Around the Body

The Cluthe Truss is the only kind in existence which applies the support at the proper angle— upwards against the rupture opening; thus counteracting the internal downward pressure of the abdominal organs, the natural tendency of the bowels to push out.

And, unlike all others, it is self-adjusting, self-regulating. Automatically adjusts itself with every one of your movements when you in any way exert your strength.

Sudden strains or movements, like coughing or sneezing, like in working or exercising— strains which would cause other trusses to slip or shift out of position— simply cause an instant, automatic increase in the comfortable support a Cluthe Truss gives to your rupture.

[Sidenote: Holding Power Automatically Increases To Meet Any Strain]

Every strain of any kind is instantly and automatically counteracted.

After fitting men here at the Institute, we have had them do everything we could think of, but they couldn't throw the Cluthe Holding Pads out of position, couldn't force the rupture out.

The holding power of this truss instantly increased to meet every strain the men made.

The Cluthe Automatic Holding Pads— the pads which hold the rupture in place— are free acting— work on a ball-bearing, universal joint. Thus they are wonderfully sensitive to the slightest movement, instantly respond to each movement.

No other truss in the world has this self-adjusting feature— no other can hold a bad rupture, no other can keep the rupture from getting worse.

Just as no other can overcome the weakness which causes rupture— no other can give the strengthening massage which the Cluthe Truss gives— no other can make the rupture better.

We have so much confidence in the Cluthe Truss that we guarantee in writing— as fully explained on page 66— that it will at all times prevent protrusion.

* * * * *

Another thing about the Cluthe Truss.

In cases of Double Rupture, this truss is of course equipped with Automatic Holding Pads on both sides.

While in case of Single Rupture, the side not ruptured is protected against strains by a free-acting Protection Pad; this supports and strengthens the well side, prevents all danger of double rupture. Every man who has a double rupture originally had only a single rupture. Most other trusses fail to provide any dependable protection for the well side in Single Rupture.

* * * * *

And now note that when you put on a Cluthe Truss, there's no belt, band or elastic around the waist, no springs, no legstraps, nothing that can pinch, squeeze or bind, nothing that can cut, chafe or in any way irritate the skin.

[Sidenote: Holds Securely Without Unnecessary Pressure]

It is the only truss without "harness" of any kind whatever.

It is held on the body by free-acting suction or vacuum Pads.

These Pads rest lightly and comfortably over the natural cushion of muscles forming the rump.

And hold the truss securely in position on the body in much the same way suction holds a properly fitting set of false teeth so comfortably in place that they seem like natural teeth.

Because free from "harness," there is nothing about the Cluthe Truss that can bulge the clothing. It can be worn under corsets; or worn under tights without showing. Many acrobats wear Cluthe Trusses under their tights when performing.

Yet the Cluthe Truss doesn't squeeze or hug, doesn't bind against the body at any point save where the Suction Pads rest and where the Holding Pads support the rupture.

This makes it the most comfortable truss ever invented.

Many people have written us that it is as comfortable as their clothing.

* * * * *

Another feature.

Every part of the Cluthe Truss is covered with vulcanized rubber or waterproof casing.

No leather or cloth or similar material to heat up the skin and make it tender.

Nothing that can absorb perspiration; nothing that can get sweaty, sticky or foul-smelling.

And because waterproof, it can easily be washed; easily kept clean.

[Sidenote: Wear It When Taking a Bath or Swim]

It is about the only truss that is all waterproof. Therefore about the only truss you can keep on while taking a bath or swim— a time when you are in danger, if you have no truss on, of having the rupture thrown out by the bending and twisting you do.

Other trusses which claim to be waterproof can't be depended upon to hold— won't hold successfully when you are in the water or any other time. It takes more than waterproof quality alone to keep rupture from coming out.

* * * * *

Yet, with all its exclusive superiorities, the Cluthe Truss— including the professional services of the members of the Cluthe Institute— costs only a trifle more than the worthless trusses which do little or no good whatever.



The Care And Attention We Give You

All Without Taking You a Single Step From Your Home or a Minute From Work or Business

When you try a Cluthe Automatic Massaging Truss, you will find that you get vastly different treatment— vastly better care and attention— than when you go to a drug store or local truss dealer.

For you will get from us— in connection with the Cluthe Truss, and without extra charge— the skilled care and attention of five men (the five members of the Cluthe Rupture Institute) who are pretty well known throughout America as being foremost in the field of rupture.

And you will get our care and attention— and our special advice on your case— without putting yourself to half as much trouble as when you go to a drug store—

You will get it merely by sending us— as explained farther on— a little simple information.

[Sidenote: Distance Makes No Difference]

We can study and understand your case as well with you five to five thousand or more miles away as we could with you right before us; or just as well as the best physician could study and diagnose a case of typhoid or other sickness right at the bedside of the patient.

Our system of attending to people by mail is so exact— and our knowledge and skill so great— that no matter how far away you are we can fit you correctly with a Cluthe Truss just as surely as a high class tailor could fit you with a suit of clothes after taking your measurements himself.



Here we have on file— in writing— complete particulars concerning each of the 290,000 cases we have attended to.

Every case is carefully indexed and ready for instant reference.

Nothing is left to memory or guesswork— nothing can be overlooked, nothing forgotten.

Thus your case can be easily and accurately compared with hundreds of similar cases.

You see we have made mail order fitting and mail order care and attention a science.

That— together with the superiority of the Cluthe Truss— together with the knowledge and experience gained through attending to thousands of widely different cases— gives us a tremendous advantage over your local druggist or any one else you could go to.

For years our Institute was located in the heart of New York City— within a short car ride of several million people.

[Sidenote: Our Advantages Over The Drug Store]

And there— in the course of years— among the thousands of people who came in person to be attended to at our Institute, we had in our care case after case of every kind and condition of rupture ever known.

And all this time we were also attending by mail to cases of all kinds in all parts of the civilized world.

No druggist— no truss fitter in any drug store or surgical supply house— no one else in all America— ever had such a wonderful opportunity to learn all the peculiarities of rupture.

Our experience has been so complete that in the last five years we haven't come across a single case— either by mail or among those who came to the Institute— which presented any peculiarities that we were not already familiar with.

Yet— because he has never seen a case like it before— a case that would seem simple to us often completely baffles the best of truss fitters in drug stores, local truss concerns, surgical supply houses, etc.

Now it is only in the largest drug stores, local truss establishments and surgical instrument houses— perhaps in only five or six places in a city like New York or Chicago— that a special or "expert" truss fitter of any kind is employed.

So if a comparatively simple case puzzles these "expert" fitters, a man certainly can't expect much satisfaction at the small drug store, where whichever clerk that isn't busy— at best someone with little or no knowledge at all of rupture— will undertake to wait on you.

During our long experience, for every person who came to our Institute we have probably attended to ten others by mail.

And we have proved over and over— year after year— that we can give relief by mail to the man five or five thousand miles away just as well as to the man who came to our Institute.

[Sidenote: Give Entire Time To Attending Cases By Mail]

So now we have moved our Institute to Bloomfield, N.J.— only ten miles from New York City— a quiet suburb where we can give our entire time to attending to cases by mail.

For we have found that the great majority of the victims of rupture can't afford to lay off from work or business long enough to undergo operation— the only thing besides the Cluthe Truss which can be looked upon as a means of relief; we have found that most ruptured people can't spare the money required for an operation; and that many of them— largely because they have been wearing, for years, perhaps, trusses which have been letting them get worse all the time— are so weakened and run down in health that they stand little chance of recovering from the shock of an operation.

These are the people who are most in need of our truss and most in need of our skilled care and attention.

And here in Bloomfield we can do more good, give relief to more people by mail, than we could had we remained in New York.

And here, day after day, we are attending by mail to people in New York City— only ten miles away— just as we are to sufferers in Maine, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, California, etc.

[Sidenote: Well-Known Business Men Order By Mail]

Big business men in New York— bankers, presidents of big corporations, noted lawyers and others— men perhaps living in the same block with some noted physician or surgeon— men who could send for their autos and in fifteen to thirty minutes be in any one of New York's best hospitals— men who can afford the best medical and surgical care in the world— are among those who have ordered Cluthe Trusses from us here in Bloomfield in exactly the same way— by mail— that a man out in Ohio or Oregon would.

Now when men like these— many of them acting on the advice of famous physicians— are taking advantage of the care and attention we give by mail in connection with the Cluthe Truss, it is mighty good proof of our ability to attend to any kind of case by mail.

[Sidenote: How We Study Your Case]

The first thing we do, when a man writes for a Cluthe Truss, is to make a careful, scientific study of his case. We must understand your case thoroughly— know all its peculiarities.

And please bear in mind that your case will receive the personal attention of at least three members— perhaps there will be a consultation of all five members— of the Cluthe Rupture Institute.

No order is ever put in the hands of a clerk or helper or other inexperienced person.

In each case we give our complete professional service. Each case is treated individually.

We take into consideration the kind of rupture— the location of the rupture opening— the size of the protrusion, the length of time ruptured, the cause of the rupture, whether or not an operation has been performed, etc., etc.

You will find, on our information blank (one is enclosed with this book, or see duplicate questions on page 73) some simple, easily-answered questions concerning these points.

And your answers to these questions, if your answers are correct, furnish us all the guidance we need as to the special requirements of your case. Just as a physician in writing a prescription is guided by the answers to his simple questions.

That is how we determine the shape and size of the Automatic Holding Pad (in case of Double Rupture, each rupture is individually treated, usually a different kind of pad for each side, for both sides are seldom the same).

And that is how we determine the adjustment of the pads and all parts, the amount of support needed and the regulation of the holding pads to give the support, etc., etc.

Then, after deciding all these points, we make for you a special Cluthe Truss— one exactly adapted to your individual case— every part of it exactly what your condition requires. (Compare that with the way drug stores and local truss dealers try to fit you with a ready-made "stock" truss.)

We next take this specially made truss to our Gallery of Statues— which consists of life-size and life-like models or dummy figures.

[Sidenote: Our Life-Like Models]

And here, no matter what your size or build, we have a dummy model corresponding to your living self in shape— a form your clothes would fit just as they fit on you.

When we see the measurements you give when ordering (they are all provided for in a simple way on our Information or Question blank) we know at once which one of our many models or forms to use.

And on this form— duplicating your size and build— we fit your truss, as soon as it is made, just as if you yourself were right here in front of us.

We can usually make up your truss, fit it, and have it ready to send within twenty-four to thirty-six hours after receiving your order.

Every day we fit in this way scores of people we have never seen.

And it's only in about one case out of several hundred that we fail to give perfect fit. While in such cases, usually only some slight adjustment is needed to make the fit perfect— some simple adjustment which the patient himself can easily make. Our common-sense instructions fully provide for proper adjustment if any is necessary.

Our ability to meet the exact requirements of your case— our expert skill and care in fitting— are things no one else can give you— for no one else has had our forty years of professional experience— no one else has learned how, as we have.

The method we follow (which is exclusively our own), is the only method of fitting that can result in continuous and comfortable holding.

And continuous and comfortable holding, combined with the soothing, strengthening and healing massage treatment which the Cluthe Truss automatically gives, is the only thing (save an operation— which can't always do it)— that can effect a permanent cure.



How Day-After-Day Holding is Given by the Cluthe Automatic Pad



The above illustration represents the side view of the lower abdomen of a person of medium size. C, A and E is the natural line of the abdomen. D, B and F is the line when the abdomen is inflated by coughing, sneezing, or any exertion or strain. The black disc is the pad. When the wearer coughs or strains, pad end A is forced to position B, while the lower or retaining end of pad E is instantly forced inward to position F, thereby completely checking the descent of the rupture and effectively locking it in. Thus rupture is at all times retained with the least possible pressure of pad under normal conditions, yet the extra pressure needed is instantly and automatically given when any exertion or strain demands it.

This automatic action of the Holding Pad also massages the ruptured parts. This massage has a soothing, healing effect— like gently rubbing your forehead when you have a headache— or like rubbing a bruised spot— and, gradually overcomes the weakness which causes rupture— gradually strengthens the weak ruptured parts, just as exercise strengthens the muscles of the arms.



Able to Work While Being Cured

For men with a living to make, work to do, business to attend to, families to provide for, the Cluthe Truss is nothing less than a godsend.

And it means just as much to men who want to take part in athletic games, men who want active outdoor exercise.

Some, in their letters to us, have called it a life-saver.

For the Cluthe Truss rids work and exercise of every one of their dangers; rids them of every one of their injurious effects on rupture.

You who read this— by letting us send you a Cluthe Truss on sixty days' trial— can easily prove all that; just as thousands of others have proved it.

With this truss on there isn't the slightest risk of having your rupture forced out by sudden strains or movements.

Just bear that in mind— you who have been compelled, because your truss has been doing no good, to drop everything perhaps two or three times a day or more and put your rupture back.

This truss puts an end to all danger of further weakening yourself while working— puts an end to all danger of making your rupture worse.

Just keep that in mind— you who now scarcely dare do a thing— scarcely even cough or laugh, for fear of bad effects on your rupture— for fear your truss will yield and let the rupture escape.

[Sidenote: What You Can Do With a Cluthe Truss On]

And with a Cluthe Truss on, work, exercise or outdoor sports will never cause any discomfort.

Don't overlook that— you who have been putting up with old-fashioned trusses or "appliances" with their belts, bands, elastics, leg-straps and other torturing harness— trusses which hurt so much every time you move that they almost drive you frantic.

Instead of letting work injure you in any way, a Cluthe Truss (as previously explained) makes the work you do and the exercise you take actually help make your rupture better— makes your work actually have a healing or curative effect.

There is plenty of proof of that.

Men doing heavy work, and doing it every day— men like farmers, blacksmiths, railway firemen, factory workers, miners, etc.— are among those cured by this truss; cured while working right along, cured while earning good incomes.

Also men taking more or less violent exercise, like base-ball players, tennis players, horse-back and bicycle riders, etc.

[Sidenote: A Few Of The Men Who Were Cured While Working]

Some of them, while working, remember, cured in less than three months.

A lot of them cured in from four to twelve months; among them men who had been ruptured as long as fifteen to thirty years.

And took only a little while longer for some who had been ruptured as long as fifty years to be cured.

You will find, at the back of this book, many letters in proof of this.

* * * * *

We have seen the Cluthe Truss do so much good for so many other people that we feel sure it can do wonders for you.

So sure it will help you, just as it did them that— as explained in a later chapter— we are willing to let you test it on sixty days' trial, to prove just how much it can benefit you.



Don't Let Yourself Be Scared Into Risking An Operation

Cluthe Truss Has Done Away with All Need For Operation, Except in Occasional Cases

People used to think that an operation was the only way to cure rupture— thought they had to be cut open.

Just as people used to know no better than to undergo bleeding, no matter in what way they were sick. Histories and biographies tell us it was the loss of blood from this barbarous bleeding which led to George Washington's death.

But nowadays we never hear of bleeding.

Just as fever patients are no longer denied ice water and ice applications. Though, not so many years ago, people were literally allowed to burn up with fever.

[Sidenote: Thousands Have Died Under The Surgeon's Knife]

Operation for rupture, for reasons stated below has never been much more than a life-or-death chance, even for those with a rugged constitution. Thousands of ruptured people have died under the surgeon's knife.

Oftentimes a weak heart— because of the ether— makes it unsafe even to attempt operation.

And it has always been a big expense which not one in a hundred could afford. Even though it had no dangers, the cost and the long lay-off from work or business make it useless for the majority of sufferers to think of an operation.

The reasons operation is so risky for most people are these:

The sufferer is seldom in condition for an operation, is run down, the vitality is low— that is why the muscles over the intestines have weakened and spread.

Another grave danger lies in the fact that a very large opening must be made— many delicate tissues cut through— before the surgeon can reach the weakened muscles which caused the rupture.

Moreover, in a surgical operation, the relaxed muscles are tightened simply by shortening them— by cutting out a piece.

But nothing is done to strengthen these muscles. Nature is in no way assisted. The parts usually remain weak— that is why, when a man leaves the hospital after an operation for rupture, he is usually told to wear a truss or support.

And that is why, in about six out of every ten apparently successful operations, the rupture sooner or later breaks out anew.

So we would never advise an operation, save as a last resort. As in strangulated hernia, where there is no hope except through heroic measures.

Save in very rare cases, there is now no need whatever to undergo the dangers of an operation— no need to risk the surgeon's knife. No need to incur the big expense of going to a hospital— no need to lose any time from work or business— no need to be in bed a single day.

For since the invention of the Cluthe Truss or Cluthe Automatic Massager, the day of operation is over, save for an occasional case.

The Cluthe Truss has probably effected more permanent cures than all the operations ever performed.

And is always safe, and almost invariably beneficial, whether or not it brings complete cure. (Cure is sometimes impossible, as told in another chapter.)



Why Ordinary Trusses Do More Harm Than Good

The country is full of trusses which are nothing but more or less worthless makeshifts. Some with so little merit that they try to hide under other names.

Like the junk handed out at drug-stores. Like the traps peddled by the quacks who pose as Hernia "Specialists."

Trusses and appliances with belts, bands or springs around the waist, trusses with leg-straps, etc.

Some of these trusses cost little more to make than a pair of good suspenders or garters. A little leather, a few pieces of elastic or web band, a cloth-covered pad with sawdust in it, is about all there is to them.

So, like suspenders or garters, they absorb perspiration; that rots them so they soon give out.

But their greatest weakness isn't in their cheap materials; it's in their unscientific construction, in the fact that they usually do more harm than good.

[Sidenote: Your Suspenders Would Do As Much Good As Some Trusses]

A rubber band around your waist would do as much good as some of these makeshift trusses and "appliances"; and not be so apt to do harm.

Might just as well wear your suspenders or garters over your rupture as some of the trusses and devices with which this country is overrun. Some of these trusses would hold your rupture just about as well if you left them hanging in the closet instead of wearing them.

During the many years The Cluthe Rupture Institute was located in New York City, we had daily evidence of the utter worthlessness of all such trusses.

Every day, one after another of the victims of such appliances were coming to us for relief.

When we examined these patients, we usually found that the rupture had pushed the pads aside and worked out above or below them.

Sometimes we found that the pads had worked away from the rupture opening, worked down against the pelvic bone. And the ruptured parts had slipped out and were being squeezed between the pads and the bone. A condition apt to result in strangulation.

Some of these patients came to us suffering intense torture from the terrific pressure of such trusses— pressure perhaps ten times greater than needed— and this cruel pressure is exerted from the wrong direction, in the wrong place.

Perhaps merely a slight sneeze or cough is enough to push the pads out of position. And then the pressure of these pads forces the ruptured parts out, instead of holding them in.

Sometimes the pads had slipped down so far on the pelvic bone— or had been pulled down by the leg-straps— that there was no support for the rupture whatever.

And this constant pressure against the pelvic bone saps the vitality. Often causing sexual weakness and mental failing. For between this bone and the outer skin is the sensitive life-giving spermatic cord.

[Sidenote: Ordinary Trusses May Bring On Other Ailments]

Also, we have found in hundreds of cases that these belt and spring trusses press against the femoral artery so severely that heart disorders result. Causing dizziness, headaches, irritability, etc. Yet the patient seldom associates his truss with these troubles, seldom knows their cause.

And constipation and stomach troubles are often brought on by these trusses. Gas on the stomach is a common result.

These troubles can be remedied only by removing the cause— only by discarding the harmful truss.

The Cluthe Truss soon overcomes such complications. We have countless letters— from people formerly suffering from such troubles brought on by wrong trusses— telling how the Cluthe Truss has given them a new lease on life— made them feel many years younger.

Among patients who came to us wearing spring trusses, we have often found evidence of injury to the spine.

For such trusses press against the spine— the delicate center of the nervous system— just as cruelly as they dig into the abdomen and the pelvic bone in front.

And frequently, when patients came to us wearing belt trusses, we have found the tender skin all cut and bruised where the belt fits around the body. And nearly always the cruel leg-straps had made the wearer's legs raw and sore.

The sufferer who wears a truss like these can scarcely have a moment's comfort.

Thousands of belt and spring trusses have been thrown away by new patients at our Institute, after we had fitted them with Cluthe Trusses.

And among all these discarded trusses we have never found one that could be properly adjusted— the pressure couldn't be properly regulated.

There is by far too much pressure at times when only slight pressure is needed.

And, at times of strain, when more pressure is needed, there is no increase in pressure to meet that need.

This unregulated pressure tends to stretch the weakened muscles at the point of rupture— distends and enlarges the opening.

That is one reason why a rupture grows constantly worse when a leg-strap or spring truss is worn. Such trusses are a crime— wearing them is simply slow suicide.

We keep a record showing the history of every rupture we treat.

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



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



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.



Dotted lines in lower illustration 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 passed 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 glasses— 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 glasses.

[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 glasses are needed— then prescribes that kind of glasses.

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.

And, usually, his knowledge of trusses is confined to the difference in prices— he'd rather sell you a $10 truss than a $3 truss.

His knowledge of fitting is not much greater.

If you measure 36 inches around the hips, he gives you a 36-inch truss— which, in everything except size, would be exactly like the truss he'd sell at the same price, to a man with a rupture only half as bad as yours, or to a man with a rupture twice as bad as yours.

A drug-store sells trusses in exactly the same way that the old-fashioned shoe store sold shoes.

It was solely a matter of how much the customer wanted to pay, and the style the customer wanted— not what the customer needed.

Thousands of people have been "all crippled up" because their shoes were too short, or too narrow, or the wrong shape. The old-fashioned shoe clerk knew his stock, but he didn't know enough about the customer's feet to know when the customer was properly fitted.

Just as thousands of people have trouble with their glasses because they were fitted by an optician— "over the counter,"— instead of having an oculist prescribe for them.

And, partly because improperly fitted at drug-stores, and partly because drug-store trusses are usually mere makeshifts, thousands of people are to-day wearing trusses which are doing immense harm instead of good— trusses which cause the rupture to grow constantly worse.

Even if there is any druggist in the country who does happen to know much about rupture and about fitting trusses, he'd have to be a mighty bright man to be able to fit you at all properly with the kind of trusses sold in the average drug-store.

Practically all the drug-store trusses are simply some form of the old belt or springs and leg-strap truss— though sold under hundreds of different names as "improvements." They are usually cheaply constructed— turned out by machinery in immense quantities.

And they are always ready-made "stock" trusses. Each kind made in only one model or style, and the pads in only a few different shapes and sizes.

Making mighty scant provision for the wide variation between the ruptures of different people; making mighty little allowance for the fact that what will do for one man won't do at all for another.

[Sidenote: Each Man Requires Something Different]

Your rupture, when out, may be the size of a hen's egg; your neighbor may have a protrusion almost as big as his head; and a lot of other men with protrusions ranging all the way from one extreme to the other. To say nothing of big differences in other ways besides size.

Each of you should have a size and shape of holding pad especially adapted to the needs of your case— each should have a truss put together especially for you. Else there can be no such thing as continuous, comfortable holding of the rupture.

So you see the absurdity of trying to get a comfortably fitting truss at a drug-store, or of expecting to get one that will do much good.

Might as well expect all men to be properly fitted in a shoe store which carries only one size and shape of shoe. Or in a hat store which carries only one size of hat. Might as well expect both near-sighted and far-sighted men to see better if both wore the same kind of glasses. And might as well expect common window-glass to improve the eye-sight as to expect common drug-store trusses to do any good.

[Sidenote: Just Like Getting Glasses]

There is just as much difference in different men's ruptures as in the size and shape of their feet or heads.

Just as much variation in rupture as in failing eyesight. And everybody knows that one man may need very powerful glasses, while another needs glasses which magnify only slightly; one may need a double lens, while another needs only a single lens; one may need convex lenses, while another needs concave.

All this doesn't mean that it is hard to fit ruptured people, but merely that ample provision must be made for the different requirements. As a shoe store does for men's feet.

We have found it necessary to make the Cluthe Holding Pads in 115 different styles, shapes and sizes. And frequently we have to make a special style or size.

Thus, no matter what your rupture is like, we can fit you with a Cluthe Truss— one put together especially for you— one that will meet your requirements just as well as a shoe store can fit you with shoes, or an oculist fit you with exactly the kind of glasses you need.

* * * * *

It is for these reasons— their ignorance of rupture— that we have never sold the Cluthe Truss through druggists.

Trusses are simply a side-line in the average drug-store. Just as cigars are, or "soft drinks."

A druggist knows all about drugs.

He has made them his special study.

But he doesn't know much about rupture— doesn't pretend to— and can't be expected to. Because he hasn't made a study of it.

It took us, here at the Cluthe Rupture Institute, over forty years to learn all that we now know about Rupture.

Forty years of day-after-day concentration on the study and treatment of Rupture.

And during those forty years, we have learned things about Rupture which no one else has ever learned— we have gained knowledge which is exclusively our own.

And it took many years of scientific study and experiment to perfect the Cluthe Truss, and to design the hundreds of different kinds, sizes, and shapes of Holding Pads which adapt this truss to every form and condition of Rupture known to-day.

We have told you this, Reader, to show that placing yourself in our care is vastly different from going to a drug-store, or to a mere dealer in trusses or manufacturer of them.

And the following chapters will show that even more conclusively.





Physicians Advise Cluthe Truss Instead of Operation

Until they know of something better, most physicians, because of their training, naturally believe in hospital treatment for rupture— naturally favor operations.

But few good physicians would ever advise an operation if they knew of the Cluthe Truss and the world of good it has done.

Just as no conscientious physician would ever think of sending anyone to the drug-store for a truss if he knew how much more beneficial a Cluthe Truss is.

Too bad, for the sake of their ruptured patients, that more physicians don't know the facts about this truss. Too bad the good news hasn't yet spread among all the profession.

However, thousands of physicians all over the country are already familiar with the facts— thousands have seen the folly of expecting ordinary trusses to do any good— thousands now know that getting a Cluthe Automatic Massaging Truss and our professional care and attention in connection with it, is a vastly different thing than going to a drug-store for a truss.

Just as calling in a physician and having him prescribe exactly what you need for typhoid, grippe, nervous trouble, rheumatism or other sickness, is a hundred times more likely to give you relief than if you go to a drug-store for some patent medicine "cure-all."

So far as we know, every physician who has impartially looked into the merits of the Cluthe Automatic Massaging Truss and the care and attention we give has from that time on (unless operation was absolutely necessary) been advising a trial of the Cluthe Truss in all cases of rupture which come under his charge.

Among such physicians are many connected with hospitals, who almost invariably advise a trial of the Cluthe Truss instead of an operation; just as they would prefer to cure appendicitis without an operation unless an operation seemed imperative.

And many physicians (you'll find the names of some of them in the book "Your Neighbor's Word") are themselves wearing Cluthe Trusses, or have worn them until cured.



Ruptured People Swindled Out of Thousands of Dollars

Look Out for the Deceitful "Don't-Wear-a-Truss" Arguments and the Tricky "Not-a-Truss" Claims

Get-Rich-Quick Quacks are year after year humbugging ruptured people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The traps they set are cleverly baited. But the bait always consists of misrepresentation and tricky subterfuges.

Some style themselves "doctors"— an insult to the medical profession.

Some call themselves "Captain" or "Colonel"— an attempt to get the sympathy of Civil War veterans.

Some try to work on your sympathies by telling you they were themselves formerly ruptured— that they got their knowledge of rupture by studying their own cases— that they made a special "appliance" for themselves. But a doctor or surgeon can't set his own arm. And no one can make a scientific study of his own rupture any more than he can perform an operation on himself.

And some call themselves Rupture or Hernia "Specialists"— but never specialized in anything except swindling ruptured people.

Some of them make offers like "Free to the Ruptured"— so worded as to make a man think it means free cure. But all they send you free is a cheap little folder or circular. People who write to them soon learn to know better than to expect something for nothing.

[Sidenote: Don't be Fooled by "Appliances," "Methods," etc.]

And some try to snare their victims with deceitful "Don't-Wear-a-Truss" talk.

Try to hoodwink you into thinking they have no truss to sell.

Try to fool you with things they call "Appliances," "Methods," "Discoveries," etc.

But the man who puts any faith in such claims soon finds that these so-called "Appliances" and "Methods" are nothing but an adaptation of the old-fashioned truss with belt, band, leg-straps, springs, etc. Nothing but the most worthless kind of a truss masquerading under a misleading name.

Some of these "Method" concerns throw in some absurd kind of liniment, salve or ointment— tell you the secret lies in this "lymph" or whatever they call it rather than in their appliances.

But that is nothing more nor less than the rankest kind of fraud.

It is folly to suppose any salve, liniment or medicine can possibly cure rupture. Might as well expect them to cure a broken bone. Though they can probably do as much good as the worthless "appliances" they come with.

[Sidenote: The Liniment Fraud]

When you first apply this "lymph" or liniment, you may feel some stimulating effects; for these lymph-sellers are always careful to tell you to rub the stuff in thoroughly. But the stimulation lasts only a few minutes; and is due to the rubbing and not to the liniment. If you rub with your fingers alone— without any liniment— it will do just as much good.

This rubbing, while the stimulation lasts, simply proves the value of massage. For rubbing with your hands is, in a way, like the massage which the Cluthe Truss gives automatically. But the massage given by our truss is a hundred times more invigorating and strengthening to the ruptured parts than any amount of hand-rubbing. Our truss is giving the massage all day long, while rubbing with your hands can be done only once or twice a day at most, only when flat on your back, and only for a few minutes at a time.

Some of these people claim they can cure rupture by means of a plaster— like the kidney plaster which proved worthless long ago.

These plaster venders are careful to avoid saying out and out in plain language that their plaster will positively keep your rupture from coming out— they make no direct promises or guarantee whatever of holding the rupture.

If they cannot guarantee holding, it is nonsense to think any plaster can possibly overcome any weakness like rupture, no matter what kind of magical ointment there may be in the plasters.

We have talked of these kinds of people in plain language; we have called a spade a spade.

For it is nothing less than a crime the way these men have grown rich by defrauding ruptured people.

It is worse than the way wildcat "mining" men have robbed the unsuspecting public. For these rupture swindlers take advantage of people's suffering.

[Sidenote: How to Save Yourself from Being Humbugged]

But it is easy enough to avoid being fooled— easy enough to guard against frauds and fakes.

And it is easy enough to save yourself from throwing money away on drug-store trusses and other things which may be sold without wrong intent— but which are utterly incapable of doing any particular good.

Simply make up your mind not to put any faith in anything whatever for rupture unless you can get the sellers to agree to let you test it on Sixty Days' Trial and under the protection of a Money-Back Guarantee.

Make sure that everything is clearly understood— see that all agreements are plainly worded— insist on a signed guarantee that your rupture will be held or your money refunded.

Any concern which makes or sells a truss or anything else good enough to stand that test doesn't need to resort to misleading claims or subterfuge or trickery of any kind.

And that— a sixty days' trial under the protection of our iron-clad money-back guarantee— is the test we ask you to make of the Cluthe Automatic Massaging Truss.



Showing How the Cluthe Truss is Held in Place Without Leg-Straps or Other "Harness"



These illustrations show the free action of the rear or Suction Pads of the Cluthe Truss.

The sole work of these pads is to support the frame which passes around the body. They hold the Truss in position, so the Rupture Pads in front can't slip up or down or away from the rupture opening.

These pads rest against the cushion of muscles behind the hips (the muscles forming the rump). The pads are hollow on the under side. This forms a vacuum or suction, which makes slipping or displacement impossible in any position.



What We Have Done For 290,000 Others

At this writing we have treated at our Institute, over 290,000 ruptures.

These included all kinds and conditions. Some of them the worst cases in history.

Many of these people, in despair, were at the point of undergoing an operation. But the Cluthe Truss made operation unnecessary— saved the big expense— saved the terrible risk.

Among those we have fitted by mail are many infants from a few months to a few years old.

And even these little ones wore the Cluthe Truss in absolute comfort while being made better, while being cured.

We don't need to tell you it would be cruelty to put any other truss on children.

[Sidenote: From Infants To Men Over 80]

We have fitted by mail men and women over 60, 70 and 80 years old.

People who had been ruptured for from twenty to fifty years.

People who had tried dozens of other trusses. But never found one that would hold.

Some were in such bad shape— in such pain— that they hadn't worked for years.

Some of them, before getting Cluthe Trusses, couldn't walk more than two or three blocks without resting. Could hardly get around at all for fear of bad effects on their rupture.

And the Cluthe Truss, with its strengthening massage, has worked thousands of cures in cases apparently hopeless like these.

While in those cases where cure wasn't brought about— or hasn't yet been— this truss kept the rupture from coming out, and made the rupture better.

We keep in touch with all our patients— our interest doesn't cease until we know they are getting along all right. Yet we have known of only a few cases, including the worst ones, where the rupture ever came out after the first few days' wear of this truss.

Think of that— you who had almost given up hope.

You can see for yourself what the Cluthe Truss has done by reading a few of the letters— all voluntarily written— which are printed at the back of this book. These letters are only a few out of the thousands we have received.



Costs More to Do Without It Than To Get It

You will find it many times cheaper to get a Cluthe Automatic Massaging Truss than to try to do without one.

As long as you put up with worthless makeshifts, you are paying the price of a Cluthe Truss over and over without getting any of its benefits.

Probably paying its price again and again in time lost from work or business.

For if your rupture never keeps you from putting in a full day— if you never find it a handicap— if it never keeps you at home in bed when you should be earning money— then you are far more fortunate than most ruptured people who don't wear Cluthe Trusses.

And as long as you try to get along with worthless makeshifts, you have to keep buying truss after truss, paying out dollar after dollar for new trusses to take the place of those which don't last and those which don't do any good. Thus throwing away in a little while many times more than the price of a Cluthe Truss.

[Sidenote: Ordinary Trusses Are a Waste Of Money]

As long as you go without a Cluthe Truss, your rupture keeps getting worse— probably worse now than a year ago— been getting worse every day.

Thus again, you are constantly paying far more than the price of a Cluthe Truss; paying it in wear-and-tear on your health, in the drain on your strength and vitality, in the loss of many of the enjoyments which help make life worth living.

Without a Cluthe Truss, your rupture is a constant worry. For a man has to be more optimistic than most ruptured people if he can look into the Future without dread when he knows his rupture isn't getting any better.

No man, especially one with a family to provide for, wants to let his rupture make him more or less helpless if there is anything he can do to prevent it.

No man wants to be disabled for active work, no man wants to be dependent on others.

That has been the fate of thousands who never knew of the Cluthe Truss, or who didn't have the wisdom to try it.

But you who read this, now that you know the facts, have absolutely no excuse for ever letting rupture get the best of you.

[Sidenote: Don't Let Rupture Get the Best of You]

No one's fault but your own, if you now let your rupture keep on growing worse.

No one but yourself to blame if you don't take the chance we give you to find out, by trial at our risk, just what the Cluthe Truss can do for you.

It will be our loss and not yours if this truss doesn't at least make you a whole lot better. But your loss, not ours, if you neglect to try it.

Unless you have already let your rupture become permanently irreducible the probabilities are that the Cluthe Truss can entirely free you from the clutches of rupture, just as it has thousands of others.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying a Cluthe Truss.

If it doesn't do any good, we'll take it back and you won't lose any money.

[Sidenote: Ends all Expense on Account of Your Rupture]

If it does prove beneficial, it will in all probability last as long as you have any need for a truss. For it is mighty seldom that any part of a Cluthe Truss ever gives out, even when, as in incurable cases, it is worn year after year.

So once you get a Cluthe Truss, you'll probably never have to pay out another dollar on account of your rupture.

The Cluthe Truss costs so little— only $9 to $14— that every body not a pauper can easily afford it. Costs so little— when you consider the good it does— that no one can afford to go without it.

You can get lots of trusses that cost less and some that cost even more— but one Cluthe Truss is worth a dozen of them.

Every thrifty man knows that good shoes, for instance, are more economical than cheap ones; for the cheap shoes soon go to pieces, soon get shabby; one good pair would outlast three or four of the cheap ones.

Every man knows that good shoes— shoes that keep the feet dry— are less expensive in the end than shoes which leak and bring on colds and sickness.

[Sidenote: Like Buying Shoes]

And every man knows that properly fitting shoes, shoes you can wear with comfort, are worth three or four pairs of shoes which hurt the feet. For no matter how little the uncomfortable shoes cost, you can't get your money's worth out of them if you can't wear them.

Lots of people have common-sense enough to think of all these things in buying shoes.

But lots of them let their common-sense go on vacation when it comes to buying trusses.

Yet a truss is a hundred times more important than shoes.

Think how much depends on a truss— your comfort, your ability to make a living, your safety when working, even your very life sometimes, all depend on your truss.

If your truss is no good, if it lets any little strain throw your rupture out, there is constant danger that some sudden wrench, some slip, some fall or misstep, may throw the rupture out so violently as to cause strangulation of the rupture. And that usually ends in quick death.

But the man who wears a Cluthe Truss has nothing whatever to worry about.

For the Cluthe Truss keeps the rupture from coming out, takes all danger out of work or exercise, takes all strain off the weak ruptured parts, rests them, and— by automatically massaging them— daily strengthens them.

As the result of this constant hold and in constant strengthening, rupture is not likely to give any more trouble from the day a Cluthe Truss is put on. Just as weak eyes won't bother you any more after you get the right kind of glasses.

[Sidenote: Does More for Rupture Than Glasses do for the Eyes]

The Cluthe Truss or Cluthe Automatic Massager is the only truss in existence that can be depended on to do for rupture what good glasses do for the eyes.

In the majority of cases, it does far more.

About all that glasses can do is to keep the eyes from getting worse— take the strain off them— rest them, so they won't be further weakened.

No one expects glasses to cure weak eyes, no one expects them to improve the sight so much that glasses won't need to be worn.

But the Cluthe Truss, in many cases, does cure rupture.

You will see proof of that by reading some of the letters at the back of this book.

And in those cases where it doesn't result in complete cure, it almost invariably makes the rupture better. If it doesn't do that, we are always ready to refund the purchaser's money, as fully explained in a later chapter.



X-Ray View of Cluthe Truss

Note that there is no Belt, Elastics or Spring around the Waist, and no Leg-Straps



This Truss Can be Worn in the Bath, or when Swimming— All Parts Are Water-Proof

This X-ray view shows how simple the Cluthe Truss is— how few parts it has— its freedom from uncomfortable "harness"— and just how it looks when on.

This view is taken from above— what is called a "Bird's Eye" view. The rear pads (Suction Pads) are level with the pads in front (the Automatic-Acting Holding or Rupture Pads), though they seem higher in the picture.

Bear in mind that the frame you see in the picture is no way a spring or belt or band. It leaves the hips and spine free— doesn't press against the body at any point. (This is shown more clearly by the Cross-Section View on page 58.) The Suction Pads in the rear— which rest lightly on the rump— hold the truss in proper position, keeping it from slipping, shifting or moving the least bit out of place. The only purpose of the frame is to connect the Suction Pads with the Rupture Pads in front, so the truss can hold you together.