Cluthe's Advice to the Ruptured Part 9

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-fas.h.i.+oned 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-fas.h.i.+oned 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 gla.s.ses 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 makes.h.i.+fts, thousands of people are to-day wearing trusses which are doing immense _harm_ instead of good-- trusses which cause the rupture to grow constantly worse.

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

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

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

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

[Sidenote: Each Man Requires Something Different]

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

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

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

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

[Sidenote: Just Like Getting Gla.s.ses]

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 gla.s.ses, while another needs gla.s.ses which magnify only slightly; one may need a double lens, while another needs only a single lens; one may need convex lenses, while another needs concave.

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: Showing a few of the different sizes and shapes in which the Cluthe Holding Pads are made.]

_+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 Ma.s.saging 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 Ma.s.saging Truss and the care and attention we give has from that time on (unless operation was absolutely necessary) been advising a trial of the Cluthe Truss in all cases of rupture which come under his charge.

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

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