The New Rupture Society. SO 



Among the afflicted poor, where no means of relief have 

 been resorted to during the existence of ruptures and pro- 

 lapses, the unhappy objects are commonly disabled from 

 fulfilling the ordinary duties of their stations ; insomuch that 

 in the army and navy it is an invariable rule to dismiss from 

 the service those men who become ruptured by the violence 

 of their exertions. How lamentable a fact is it, that many 

 thousands of individuals, perhaps during the period of full 

 health and activity, should drag on a most useless and mi- 

 serable life, for want of either the means or the knowledge 

 requisite to obtain relief, when that knowledge and those 

 means can so easily be provided by their affluent neighbours ! 



The extreme danger of these complaints, and the great 

 inconveniences entailed on those pitiable beings who survive 

 their misfortune, have given birth to an innumerable host 

 of truss-sellers, rupture-mongers, women-doctors, and iono- 

 rant impostors ; so that " no disease," as the late celebrated 

 Mr. Pott observes, tl has ever furnished such a constant 

 succession of quacks as ruptures have." These pretenders 

 are to be found in almost every city, town, and village 

 throughout this kingdom ; for whoever can forge an iron, 

 hoop, or fabricate an elastic compress, thinks himself qua- 

 lified to undertake the cure of an infirmity, the treatment of 

 which demands as much anatomical and surgical knowledge 

 as that of any disorder incident to human nature. If a 

 greater mischief can happen to the ruptured poor than the 

 malady with which they are visited, it is that of unhappily 

 falling into the hands of unprincipled self-taught rupture- 

 doctors and truss-makers, who have no ideas beyond those 

 of money-getting and mechanical action. 



The great national importance of relieving the necessitous 

 and afflicted class of people here alluded to, must be suffi- 

 ciently obvious to every reflecting mind; and, when it is 

 distinctly mule known how small a sum will be annually 

 required for the comfort and security of so many deplorable 

 sufferers, no feeling spectator of such wretchedness can 

 withhold his contribution, The expense of procuring a truss, 

 and other incidental means for the relief of .1 ruptured 

 person, need not, w;th proper arrangements, exceed the 



sum 



