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