as nails.

While his _legs_-- because he doesn't _use_ them so much-- aren't likely
to be nearly so well developed.

A man in an office or store usually has soft, flabby, _weak_ muscles.

But let that man take up some form of _exercise_, like tennis or base
ball, and his muscles will soon be strong.

It is a law of Nature that our minds and muscles grow by proper use,
building themselves up to meet any demands made on them.

That is why, after any sickness which leaves the body _weak_, doctors
nearly always tell you to take plenty of _exercise_.

Until recent years, the only way to develop strength was by _active_
exercise; movement of the muscles by their own force, as in walking,
chopping wood or playing some game.

But nowadays there is a _substitute_ for exercise.

[Sidenote: Massage Is a Substitute For Exercise]

Called _Massage_; a sort of _artificial_ exercise; a way to strengthen
muscles _without using_ them.

In simple language, massage consists in alternately expanding and
contracting the muscles by applying a gentle force _externally_, instead
of moving them by voluntary and _internal_ force.

Now massage-- like ordinary exercise-- is so _strengthening_ that it
will overcome almost any kind of _weakness_.

So _invigorating_ and _beneficial_ that many well-known physicians say
the day is coming when it will be an almost _universal_ method of _cure_
for every trouble in any way due to weakness.

At the Vanderbilt Clinic in New York, many cases of weak _ankles_, weak
_backs_, etc., have been cured by massage.

Now Rupture, as shown in the last chapter, is _also_ a weakness.

But massage, as given at hospitals, can't be used to advantage for
rupture.

Too _expensive_-- requires an _expert_. And could be given only when you
are lying flat on your back in _bed_; therefore couldn't be given very
_often_; and it would take years for only _occasional_ massaging to
overcome rupture.

Moreover, hospital or hand massage could be used only in combination
with a truss that would keep the rupture from _coming out_. A protrusion
every day or so, as happens with most trusses, would _undo_ all the
beneficial effects of the massage.

But the invention of the _Cluthe_ Truss-- the _only_ truss that can be
_depended_ on to _prevent protrusion_-- makes hand or hospital massage
unnecessary; it takes their place.

It massages the weak ruptured parts as well as a skilled hand-massager
could, as well as could