156 I. IJIMA. 



that out of 77 cases inquired after by Dr. Nakahama, 34 were youths 

 between seven and fifteen years of age. Investigations* into the 

 aetiology and pathology of the disease were soon taken into hands by 

 Prof. Ogata of the Imperial University, by Dr. Nakahama on behalf of 

 the Sanitary Bureau and by the experts of the Naval School of 

 Surgeons, but just too late to push their researches to a desirable extent, 

 for the plague so speedily extinguished itself that by the time the several 

 parties arrived at the spot, they found no more fresh cases but only a 

 very few patients in advanced stages of affliction at their disposal. So 

 far as could be ascertained, the symptoms seemed to consist principally 

 of : dark-red petechiae on upper arm, back &c., round or elliptical in shape 

 and of the size of millet or pea ; more or less rising of body-tempera- 

 ture ; cerebral symptoms; costiveness; often hematemesis, &c. As to 

 the nature of the disease there arose in succeeding months a controversy, 

 hotly contested by those who took part in its investigation, both in 

 speeches and in the leading medical journals of Tokyo. But of this 

 later on. 



It seemed but a single corpse, probably the very last of the victims 

 to the plague, was available for impost mortem examination by competent 

 hands. The latter was conducted in the Navy Hospital at Yokosuka, 

 under the supervision of several members of the medical staffs of both 

 the Imperial Navy and the Metropolitan Police Bureau and reported on 

 in the Offical Gazette (No. 1732). The subject was a female, Tsuya 

 Machida by name and 3-5 years old. From among the items that are 

 contained in the report just referred to, I will here only extract the 

 following : Stomach showed internally eight ecchimotic points of 

 various sizes : its contents were a dark coloured fluid and nine Ascarin 

 lumhricoides. Intestines somewhat swollen ; small intestine congested 

 all over, ecchimosis at several places, the mucous folds turned into a 

 dark colour ; large intestine changed into a dark purple colour on account 

 of an extensive ecchimosis contained 28 Ascaria Juinhricoidefi. Faeces 



* Reports of these investio-atious are found in the Official Gazette Cg*^), Xos. 1740- 

 1741. 1762, 1783, 1739, 1795-1798. XXir. Year of Meiji (18S9). 



