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[Read to the Section of the American Medical Association on Surgery and Anatomy.]
The study of nature's method of curing an oblique inguinal hernia, shows there are two important processes at work—one, a band of adventitious tissue about the neck of the sac constantly tending to contract and close the abdominal opening at the inner ring; the other, the return to place of the two layers of transversalis fascia, the separation of which originally permitted the viscera to protrude, and the reunion of which forms a valve strong enough to prevent a recurrence of the hernial protrusion. Both processes must operate if the patient is to be cured. The frequency with which these measures are interfered with by local conditions, explains why so few patients with hernia recover spontaneously.
Trusses, by keeping the viscera in place and allowing the structures about the neck to contract, favor the cure of the