Sometimes this weakening is due to general poor health; sometimes to lack of exercise; and sometimes the weakness is inherited. Now the bowels are always _pushing_ or _pressing_ more or less against the abdominal wall-- any one, whether ruptured or not, can plainly _feel_ that pressure when coughing or sneezing; while lifting or other exertion greatly _increases_ the pressure or strain. When in a healthy or sound condition, the abdominal wall is _elastic_; and when the bowels push against it, the muscles which form it simply _stretch_ until the strain on them is over. Just as when you pull at your cheek, the flesh falls back in position the instant you let go. [Sidenote: Why The Muscles Give Way Under Strain] But if the muscles of the abdomen are in a _weak_ condition, they can't _stand_ much strain-- can no longer _stretch_-- any quick movement is often enough to cause them to spread apart, forming an opening through which a part of the bowels _pushes out_ or _protrudes._ Now there is only one way to _overcome_ that weakened condition; only one way to get rid of rupture without undergoing the dangers of operation. As a first essential, proper artificial _support_ must be applied at the point of rupture. Comfortable mechanical support that can be depended upon to hold the bowels always in _place_. Just as a broken bone must be held in place, while healing, by a bandage or plaster cast. Dr. Birkett, of the famous Guy Hospital of London, and one of the world's most eminent medical and surgical authorities, says this: [Sidenote: What Dr. Birkett Says] "The expediency of judiciously pursuing the mechanical treatment of every variety of hernia (rupture) cannot be too strongly urged upon the laity by the profession. In both sexes it should be carefully conducted the moment that the slightest protrusion shows itself; whether the hernia occurs in infancy, youth, middle age or at later periods of life, if properly watched and judiciously supported, it usually gives but little trouble; in many cases it is even cured. But on the contrary, if it be neglected, increase in bulk and, sooner or later, diseased states of the rupture, often leading to the death of the individual, will almost infallibly occur." And there is only one thing in the world that can _give_ the mechanical support which Dr. Birkett and other famous physicians say is essential. That is the right kind of _truss_. Any system of treatment (except operation) which claims to relieve or cure rupture _without_ the use of a truss is simply a fraud. [Sidenote: Why You Need a Truss] The weak muscles at the rupture opening can't possibly get strong without the aid of a truss that will do what the muscles themselves are _too weak_ to do; a truss that will hold the bowels in place. But trusses which will do _that_ even _half_ the time are mighty _scarce_.