AN ABDOMINAL TRUSS, INTENDED FOR THE MORE PERFECT SUPPORT AND CURE OF HERNIA
Year: 1862

page_text: the
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ormrod Coffeen Evans at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
2nd May 1862.
I, ORMROD COFFEEN EVANS, of 20, Church Street, Old Kent Road, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN ABDOMINAL TRUSS, INTENDED FOR THE MORE PERFECT SUPPORT AND CURE OF
HERNIA," to be as follows:-
The truss consists in being made with six instead of one or two pads as in
most instruments of this class. Two hernial, two iliac, and two lumbar. The
hernial pads are connected one with the other by (what I shall here term) a
pubic bar, which is a steel or iron bar extending from the one to the other,
and which is made in two seperate pieces and united by a set screw in a
manner so as to form a slide joint, and this, in order to enable the wearer as
well as operator to adjust the pads at will to the width of the pelvis and
position of the hernial ring or rings, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings.
Fig. I. is a view of the truss, full size, for a medium sized person. At A¹, A²,
are conical hernial pads, which when applied to a case of single rupture
though the truss is always made double, need not of necessity partake of the
same form on both sides. These pads, as before stated, are connected one
with the other by a bar L, which is formed in two pieces (n³, n²,) and united
into one by a set screw (s), and is attached at each end to its respective pad by
a ball and socket (indicated by dotted lines (a, t,) or any other device, by
which the same or similar universal movement of the pad is attained when

page_text: attached thereto. A short hoop spring H is made to extend from each hernial
pad to a corresponding iliac pad K, which presses upon the posterior surface
of the ilium or hip. These springs are attached each to its respective hernial
pad by means of a short arm (m), which is firmly affixed to the spring, and
has at the extreme end a ball or collar (c), so that by inserting this arm
underneath a plate on the top of the pad which has in it a slit or opening to
correspond with either a ball or collar, it is not only held in position, but the
pad is thereby permitted to adjust itself easily to the plane of the hernial ring.
At the iliac pads, and to the end of each spring (d) is attached a strap for the
purpose of fastening the truss around the body. These straps each pass through
the loop of a lumbar pad D, so that when the truss is adjusted to the body the
pads may be adjusted also, as best suits the wearer, either nearer to or farther
removed from the spine. From this arrangement of the different parts of the
truss, as well as mode of uniting them, it will be perceived that not only the
hernial påds adjust themselves easily, but that an axis is formed at the iliac
pads or over the hip corresponding to the axis of the legs, so that whatever
position the body and limbs may assume, either in the act of sitting, walking,
running, or jumping, the various parts of the truss readily conform to the
varying positions of the different parts of the body and limbs, which it encircles
without moving the hernial pads from their proper position over the ring or
rings of the affected part. And further, by making the truss double, in the
manner above described, even though the rupture is on one side only, the
hernial pads press counter to each other, and hence keep the bowels equalized
in position between the points of pressure, which has the effect in turn of
keeping the hernial ring so distended and defined as to require very little
pressure force to keep the protruding bowel and omentum or either in place,
and hence the truss in no case, however formidable it may appear or how much
bodily exercise the individual may be required to undergo, is required to be
constructed and made otherwise than extremely light.
To prevent detection of the effect which the wearing of the truss may have
in some instances only upon the external dress a piece of stiff, fabric, two or
three inches wide is plaited over the outside of the pubic bar and covering of
the hoop springs, but which in the Drawings has been omited to prevent
confusion of the parts.