^vii] THE HOT SPRINGS AND THEIR HEALING TOWERS. C57 



and volcanic tuffs, and a short distance from the town there is an 

 extinct volcano in whose crater there are layers of sulphur,^ In 

 the immediate neighbovirhood of the place where the main 

 spring rises there is a thick solidified lava stream, surrounded 

 by tuffs, which near the surface is cleft into a number of large 

 ^•esicular blocks. From this point the hot water is conducted 

 in long open wooden channels to the bath-house of the town, 

 and to several evaporating pools, some by the wayside, others in 

 the town, intended for collecting the solid constituents of the 

 water, which are then sold in the country as medicine. The 

 great evaporation from these pools, from the open channels and the 

 hot baths, wraps the town almost constantly in a cloud of watery 

 vapour, while a very strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 reminds us that this is one of the constituents of the healing 

 waters. 



The road between the wells and the town appears to form 

 the principal promenade of the place. Along this are to be 

 seen innumerable small monuments, from a lialf to a whole 

 metre in height, consisting of pieces of lava heaped upon each 

 other. These miniature memorials form by their littleness a 

 peculiar contrast to the hauta stones ojid jeftekast of our Swedish 

 forefathers, and are one of the many instances of the people's 

 fondness for the little and the neat, which are often to be met 

 in Japan. They are said to be erected by visitors as thank- 

 offerings to some of the deities of Buddha or Shinto. 



I received from a Japanese physician the following information 

 regarding the wells at Kusatsu and their healing power. In 

 and near the town there are twenty-two wells, with water of 

 about the same quality, but of different uses in the healing 

 of various diseases. In the hottest well the water where it 

 rises has a temperature of 162° F. (= 72*2° C). The largest 

 number of the sick who seek health at the baths, suffer from 

 syphilis. This disease is now cured according to the European 

 method, with mercury, iodide of potassium, and baths. The 

 cure requires a hundred days ; from seventy to eighty per cent, of 

 the patients are cured completely, though purple spots remain 

 on the skin. The disease does not break out anew. A large 

 number of leprous patients also visit the baths. The leprosy is of 

 various kinds ; that with sores is alleviated by the baths, and is 

 cured possibly in two years ; that without sores but with the skin 

 insensible is incurable, but is also checked by frequent bathing. 

 All true lepers come from the coast provinces. A similar disease 

 is produced also among the hills by the eating of tainted fish 

 and fowl. This disease consists in the skin becoming insensible, 

 the nerves inactive, and the patient, who otherwise feels well, 



^ According to the statement of the inhabitants ; I had not time to visit 

 tlio place. 



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