Like his father and grandfather before him, Chas. Cluthe, founder of the Cluthe Rupture Institute, made his start in life in the Surgical Instrument business. Learned his trade in the old country-- over in Germany, where the world's finest surgical instruments are made. Learned the business under the old-fashioned German apprentice system; and got a mighty thorough training, as most men do over there. When still a young man he came to this country; and in course of time, he started up for himself. Now, nearly all surgical instrument houses-- in those days same as now-- make or sell trusses. And Chas. Cluthe soon saw the utter worthlessness of all the trusses then in existence. [Sidenote: He Saw The Need For Something Better] He saw what a multitude of people were ruptured. Saw the great need for something better than ordinary trusses or appliances, something better than operation. He decided that by supplying that need he could be far more useful than by manufacturing surgical instruments. And from that day to this-- now over forty-two years-- the scientific study and relief of rupture have been the one aim of his life. That led, later on, to the founding of the Cluthe Rupture Institute. And there are now five of us-- father and four sons. For as we sons grew up, we were trained in our father's work in the field of rupture; and have become Members of the Institute. We four sons have all had the benefit of our father's forty years of experience. And the youngest of us has now had seventeen years of individual experience. And here, day-after-day, we have dealt with rupture in all its forms and stages. Altogether, at this writing, we have treated, by mail and in person, over 290,000 cases. All kinds, from infants in their mothers' arms to men and women over sixty and seventy. Among them some of the worst cases on record. We have made impartial, fair-and-square tests of every known method of treatment. We have had experience with all kinds of medical applications, and all kinds of mechanical appliances. We have fitted belt and spring trusses in all their variations. We long ago found just why they all fail to hold or relieve rupture-- just why they usually cause the wearer untold torture. We have had the co-operation of some of this country's most noted physicians and surgeons. We have studied the effects and watched the results in hundreds of operations. We have found just why operations are frequently fatal. Why they are nearly always dangerous. And why the rupture frequently breaks out anew, after the operation apparently heals. Every remedial means in existence for the relief of rupture has been tried. [Sidenote: The Result Of Our Study] And the result of all this study and experimenting was the invention of the famous Cluthe Truss and Automatic Massager. Something so vastly different from everything else for rupture that it has received _eighteen separate patents_.