impossible. Palliative means can then only be adopted.

The best treatment is a Burgundy pitch plaster, spread on a soft piece
of wash leather, about the size of the top of a tumbler, with a
properly-adjusted pad (made from the plaster) fastened on the centre
of the plaster, which will effectually keep up the rupture, and in a
few weeks will cure it. It will be necessary, from time to time, to
renew the plaster until the cure be effected. These plasters will be
found both more efficacious and pleasant than either truss or bandage;
which latter appliances sometimes gall, and do more harm than they do
good.

20. _If an infant have a groin-rupture (an inguinal rupture), can that
also be cured_?

Certainly, if, soon after birth, it be properly attended to. Consult a
medical man, and he will supply you with a well-fitting truss, _which
will eventually cure him_. If the truss be properly made (under the
direction of an experienced surgeon) by a skilful surgical-instrument
maker, a beautiful, nicely-fitting truss will be supplied, which will
take the proper and exact curve of the lower part of the infant's
belly, and will thus keep on without using any under-strap whatever--a
great desideratum, as these under-straps are so constantly wetted and
soiled as to endanger the patient constantly catching cold. But if
this under-strap is to be superseded, the truss must be made exactly
to fit the child--to fit him like a ribbon; which is a difficult thing
to accomplish unless it be fashioned by a skilful workman. It is only
lately that these trusses have been made without under-straps.
Formerly the under-straps were indispensable necessaries.