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Title: Cluthe's Advice to the Ruptured
Author: Chas. Cluthe & Sons
Release Date: November 27, 2006 [EBook #19933]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLUTHE'S ADVICE TO THE RUPTURED ***
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Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
The Five Members of the
Cluthe
Rupture Institute
full text
CLUTHE’S ADVICE
TO THE RUPTURED
BY
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 |
5
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.
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
6
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.
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.
It has ruined the health of hundreds of thousands, simply because
they couldn't find anything that would do any good.
The Misery It Has Caused
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.
7
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.
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.
8
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.
9
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.
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
10
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.
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.
11
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.
12
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."
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.
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;
13
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:
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.
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.
14
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.
15
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.
16
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.
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
17
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.
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.
18
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.
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.
19
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.
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.
20
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.
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
21
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.
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.
22
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.
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.
23
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.
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.
24
THE CLUTHE RUPTURE INSTITUTE
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.
25
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.
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.
26
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.
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.
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,
27
it is mighty good proof of our ability to attend to any kind of case by
mail.
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.)
28
We next take this specially made truss to our Gallery of
Statues—which consists of life-size and life-like models or dummy
figures.
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.
29
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.
30
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.
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.
31
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.
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.
32
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.
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.
33
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.)
34
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.
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.
35
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.
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.
36
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.
37
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.
full page (thumbnail)
|
|
38
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.
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.
39
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.
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.
40
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
41
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.
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.
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.
42
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.
43

Showing a few of the different sizes and shapes in which the Cluthe
Holding Pads are made.
44
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,
45
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.
46
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.
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.
47
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.
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.
48
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.
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.
49
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.
50
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.
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.
51
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.
52
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.
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
53
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.
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.
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.
54
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.
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.
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.
55
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.
56
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.
The truss shown here is for a severe case of right-side Groin or
Scrotal Rupture. Has Automatic-Acting Holding or Rupture Pad on the
ruptured side, and a free-acting Protection Pad on the side not
ruptured, thus protecting the well side against strains, etc.
For Double Groin Rupture, another Holding Pad would be fitted where
the Protection Pad is shown here.
The Cluthe Automatic Holding Pads are made in over 115 different
shapes and sizes, and are selected as the severity and nature of each
case may demand.
We determine the true nature and real needs of the case from the
answers given to the questions on our Order blank, and then shape frame
of truss so hips and spine will be left free from pressure, and select
Rupture Pad or Pads of the right size and shape, and "set" or adjust the
truss so it will be self-regulating in the way necessary to
automatically seal the rupture opening to give proper support, and to
hold the rupture properly in place.
57
The Special Advice You Get
in Connection with the
Cluthe Truss
In every case, we give our complete Professional Services.
Like Being Under a Physician's Care
Just as the physician gives thorough study and attention in
connection with the medicine he prescribes.
Our Professional Service gives you knowledge of your trouble, based
on Nature's laws, mechanical laws and common sense, which we have
learned during our forty years of day-after-day experience.
As a part of our Professional Services, we give Special
Instructions—confidential advice—based on the individual
needs of each case.
This confidential advice has to do with your general health, the
length of time you have been ruptured, and other conditions having a
direct bearing on your rupture.
All this costs you nothing extra. And our Special Instructions and
Advice are no trouble whatever to carry out.
58
Showing How the Cluthe Truss
Can’t Rub,
Hug, Pinch, Squeeze, Chafe, Bind
or Irritate
Cross Section View, showing how the frame of the Cluthe Truss doesn't
press against the body at any point. The Cluthe Truss comes in contact
with the body only at the rupture opening (where the Holding Pads
support the rupture)—and at the rear, where the Suction Pads rest
against the muscles of the rump.
While the frame doesn't press against the body, it fits so closely
around the body that the truss won't "show" in any way under the
clothes—no one can tell you have a truss on. Won't even "bulge" a
woman's corset—won't interfere with the corset. Many acrobats wear
this truss under their tights when performing, yet no one can see any
sign of it.
59
Showing the Simplicity of the
Automatic-Acting Rupture Pads
and of the Massaging Device
Illustration at left shows Holding Pad in normal position.
When you cough or strain, your abdomen naturally expands, pushing
upper end of pad (where finger points in illustration at right) outward,
thus forcing the lower part of pad (where arrow points) in against
rupture opening. Because of this automatic action of the Holding Pad,
your rupture can never come out.
The simple mechanism shown on the inside of this pad—a device
so small it would almost go in a watch case—is what makes the
Cluthe Holding or Rupture Pad automatic in its action (self-adjusting,
self-regulating).
And at the same time, this little device causes the Holding or
Rupture Pad to give the strengthening massage to the weak
ruptured parts—all automatically or mechanically,
like the running of a watch. But—unlike a watch—this
massaging device doesn't need to be wound up—never needs any
attention whatever; and also unlike a watch, so strong and simple that
it can never get out of order—never fail to work properly.
60
Forms and Conditions
of Rupture
The illustrations on following pages show various stages of the four
common varieties of abdominal Rupture.
Groin Rupture (Inguinal) is the most common form.
Scrotal Rupture (Inguinal) is simply a worse stage of Groin Rupture.
The intestines have descended into the scrotum.
Navel Rupture (Umbilical) is that form in which the opening occurs at
or near the navel.
Thigh Rupture (Femoral) is that form of rupture which appears at the
upper part of the thigh.
Any of these forms of rupture may appear on the right or left side or
on both.
Our experience has taught us that out of one hundred cases of rupture
about eighty-six are Groin or Scrotal Rupture. Thirteen out of each
hundred are about evenly divided between Thigh and Navel Rupture. And
the remaining one may be one of several uncommon forms not mentioned
here because they are usually the result of accident.
About half of the cases of rupture occur in childhood. But there are
many cases which occur between the ages of 30 and 40. And it is a well
known fact that two-fifths of such cases become Scrotal because of
neglect, or because a truss is worn that does not keep the rupture from
coming down.
All ruptures at the start are usually very mild in form. But if the
ruptured parts are not held in place, the sac will gradually grow larger
because of the failure to seal the originally small opening through
which the intestines at first escape.
61
Warn Those Recently Ruptured
This is something about which you who have been ruptured any length
of time, you who know how rupture gets worse if not properly taken care
of, should warn any one you may know who has only recently been
ruptured. You can save them years of suffering by telling them about the
Cluthe Truss.
For it so often happens—due to the general ignorance about
rupture—that newly ruptured people don't know their danger until
too late. The rupture often gives so little trouble at first that they
think it nothing to worry about. Or perhaps—also due to
ignorance—they are ashamed to ask anyone's advice. So they go to a
drug-store and get a worthless makeshift; and, of course, wearing the cheap
contraptions sold by drug-stores, they soon find themselves in a serious
state.
There are six conditions of rupture.
When the rupture can be pressed back into the abdomen by the ordinary
manipulation of the fingers, it is a Reducible Rupture. This is the
first condition, but without a proper truss it soon grows worse.
When only a part of the contents of the lump or rupture sac can be
pressed back into the opening, it is known as a Partly Reducible
Rupture. This condition is generally the result of neglect of the
Reducible Rupture or the use of an improper truss.
When at times the contents of the lump or sac cannot be pressed back
into the body with the hands, it is known as a Temporarily Irreducible
Rupture. This temporarily irreducible condition can often be cured and
always prevented from growing worse if the proper truss is fitted and
worn.
The foregoing condition sometimes becomes so bad that it is known as
Permanently Irreducible. But even then it can usually be
controlled—prevented from growing worse—if the right kind of
truss is worn.
The condition bordering on strangulation is known as Incarcerated
Rupture. The only help for a person in this condition is an immediate
operation.
The worst condition of rupture is the strangulated form. This is a
condition where mortification has already set in. If an operation is not
immediately resorted to, the sufferer will die.
*****
62
Fig. 1
|
Fig. 2
|
Fig. 3
|
Fig. 4
|
Fig. 5
|
Fig. 6
|
These illustrations show Groin Rupture as it first appears, and how
it gradually grows worse and descends into the privates (both male and
female) when neglected or not properly protected, as when a worthless
truss or other appliance is worn which frequently or occasionally lets
the rupture come out.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 show the first three stages of Groin Rupture.
Figure 4 shows Groin Rupture descended only to the privates.
Figures 5 and 6 show the rupture after it has descended
into the privates.
63
Fig. 7
|
Fig. 8
|
Fig. 9
|
Fig. 10
|
Fig. 11 (At Navel)
|
Fig. 12 (At Navel)
|
Figures 7, 8, and 9 show advanced stages of Scrotal or Groin Rupture
(getting worse all the time because not properly protected, because not
kept from coming out) after it has descended into privates. (The
different stages are the same in Females as in Males.)
Figure 10 shows Thigh or Femoral Rupture, which comes out on the
upper part of thigh, just below the crease or depression between abdomen
and thigh. Femoral Rupture never appears higher up—never appears
in groin, and never descends into privates.
Figures 11 and 12 show two stages of Navel Rupture. (For Cluthe Navel
Truss, see page 64.)
64
We make the Cluthe Truss with special Holding Pads that meet the
requirements of every one of the foregoing conditions of Rupture, save
Incarcerated and Strangulated. With the exception of these two forms we
guarantee that the perfect truss with Automatic Massage Treatment will
constantly hold any rupture in place.
Navel or Umbilical Rupture (which appears at or near the navel)
demands immediate treatment.
Navel (Umbilical) Rupture
Neglect or Mal-Treatment is liable speedily to treble the size of the
rupture.
We make a special Cluthe Navel Truss which has never in any case
failed to improve the condition from the moment it was applied.
Our Navel Truss does not bind the abdomen—allows perfect
freedom—is light, clean and comfortable even in the hottest
weather.
It is the only successful holder for Navel Rupture—the only one
that supports the overhanging weight in front without the use of
torturing elastic fabrics.
Cases of Navel Rupture demand special care, for hardly any two are
alike. So we cannot prescribe for Navel Rupture until we know your
condition.
Simply write us stating whether the rupture can be fully reduced. If
it can't, give size of part that cannot be reduced.
If none of the forms of Navel Rupture shown on the order blank seems
to be about the size of your rupture, and in the same location, please
mark on the picture as nearly as you can the size and location of your
rupture.
On receipt of such report, we shall advise you as to the appliance
needed, and its price.
*****
After Operations
For recurrence of Rupture after an operation, we make the Cluthe
Truss with special frames and pads. For the requirements in each case
are usually different.
Simply fill out the order blank, and we will tell you just what you
need, and the price.
65
Let Us Send You A
Cluthe
Truss On 60 Days’ Trial
Won't Cost You a Single Cent if
You Don't Get Better
We don't ask you to risk a single cent of your money in finding out
what a Cluthe Truss can do for you.
We have so much faith in our truss—we know what it has done for
so many others—that we are willing to make a Cluthe Truss, as
explained below, especially for your case, and let you wear it sixty
days on trial.
Think of that, Reader! When you get a truss at a drug-store or truss
dealer's, the only chance you have to make a test is while trying the
Truss on.
But the sixty days' trial we allow you certainly gives you plenty of
time to make an absolutely thorough test—plenty of time to see
whether the truss is doing any good—plenty of time to make sure
that, with this truss on, your rupture can't come out—plenty of
time to prove the wearing and water-proof qualities of our truss.
Sixty days is longer than lots of trusses or "appliances"
would last!
60 Days Is Longer Than Lots of Trusses Would Last
Longer than you could stand to wear any truss which pinches or
squeezes or hurts in any way!
We'll protect you by giving you our signed guarantee (this paragraph
in itself is a guarantee) that this truss will keep your rupture from
coming out and improve your condition when put on and worn according to
our simple directions; guarantee it to prevent protrusion, not for just
a few minutes at a time, but for all day long, including when you are
working, exercising, taking a bath or swim.
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If, after fair trial—whether at the end of ten days, thirty days
or sixty days—you find that the truss isn't holding your rupture,
isn't helping you, simply let us know what the trouble is and if we
can't correct it we'll promptly refund your money.
Our willingness to let you try a Cluthe Truss sixty days entirely at
our risk is the best proof in the world of its merits.
We could never afford to send you a Cluthe Truss on such a long trial
if there were any likelihood that it wouldn't prove beneficial, any
likelihood that you would want to return it.
But the Cluthe Truss has been put to the test so many times,
including hundreds of seemingly hopeless cases, that we know our faith
in our truss is justified.
Benefits 199 Out of Every 200
Counting all the thousands of people who have placed themselves in
our care, our records show that the cases in which a trial of the Cluthe
Truss failed to prove beneficial have averaged only one out of each two
hundred.
A really remarkable record. For among the people who have tried the
Cluthe Truss, among those cured by it, are hundreds who had been
ruptured over 50 years. Note letters in back of book and the 5,000 names
you'll find in "Your Neighbor's Word."
The law of averages always holds good; it is one of the most certain
things in the world.
And when 199 out of every 200 who have tried this truss were
benefited, and many of them cured, you can see that there are mighty few
people who can't expect a Cluthe Truss to do them a lot of good.
Bear in mind that we aren't claiming that every one who has tried a
Cluthe Truss has been completely cured by it. We would rather err by
claiming too little than claim too much. Even a common cold, about the
simplest of all human ailments, can't always be cured, can't always be
so much as relieved or checked; that is why a cold, in spite of
everything that can be done, so often develops into pneumonia, bronchial
trouble, etc.
But we do stand back of the Cluthe Truss with an absolute guarantee
that it will keep the rupture from coming out, enable you to work
without danger, and result in improvement. Surely no man can expect a
stronger guarantee, especially after what many have gone through with
other trusses.
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Note that our guarantee is in plain, straightforward language—you
know exactly what it means—no evasions, no subterfuges—an
iron-clad and absolutely legal guarantee.
Our Guarantee Protects You Absolutely
It is nothing like the tricky, hoodwinking guarantees which so many
other concerns give. Beware of a so-called guarantee which merely reads
"This truss fully guaranteed."
A guarantee—as any lawyer will
tell you—isn't worth the paper it's printed on unless it
guarantees something specific, such as holding. And it gives you no
protection unless it guarantees your money back in case of failure.
But our Guarantee is a positive Money-Back Guarantee.
If the Cluthe Truss fails to "make good," then we will
"make good" by refunding your money.
You don't need to worry about that for a minute. No one dependent on
the good will of the public could remain in business as long as we have,
now over 40 years, and constantly gain new friends through the old,
unless every customer received a square deal. Dishonesty would have
driven us out of business long ago.
We believe that our reputation for absolute fairness and honesty is
as firmly established among people who have had dealings with us as the
reputation of Wanamaker's or Marshall Field's.
We are so seldom asked to refund money that it would be the height of
folly to risk injuring our reputation for the sake of the few dollars
represented by a Cluthe Truss or even a thousand trusses.
If we were selling automobiles or shoes or hardware, our honesty
would be taken for granted. But there has been so much trickery in the
sale of trusses and other things for rupture that it is only in justice
to ourselves that we mention our reputation.
Your Money Simply Held on Deposit
Remember that we protect you at every point. And our interest in your
case won't cease until we know you are getting along all right; you'll
always find us ready at any time to do everything within our power.
So don't let another day go by without trying this truss, this truss
which has done wonders for others.
Remember that all money you pay is simply held on deposit until you
have made the 60-day test.
If you have any doubts about our responsibility, have your local bank
look us up in Bradstreet's or Dun's.
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See How Little it Costs
to Get Relief
If you had to pay for the world of good a Cluthe Truss does, the
price would be many times higher.
But we charge only for the materials and time which go into the
truss, plus a legitimate profit.
There is nothing fancy about a Cluthe Truss, for you don't wear a
truss for ornament. But the minute you see it, you will know you are
getting your money's worth.
It is the strongest truss ever made—and at the same time the
lightest; also the cleanest, neatest-looking.
Made of the best materials we can buy—materials which will
last.
So well made that the cost of making a single part—such as one
of the Holding Pads, the massaging device or the self-adjusting
feature—is greater than the cost of making most other trusses
complete.
So strongly made and so simply made that there is nothing about it
likely to get out of order.
*****
About Prices
We make the Cluthe Truss or Cluthe Automatic Massager in two
grades.
Both are precisely the same in principle and in action.
Both are fully guaranteed to hold your rupture securely.
Both are perspiration-proof and both water-proof. The Cluthe Truss&