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 half 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
_bauta_ stones and _jettekast_ 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 deg. F (= 72.2 deg. 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, finding it impossible to walk. It is also cured
completely in very severe cases, by baths, ammonia applied inwardly,
castor-oil, Peruvian bark, &c. A third type of this ailment is the
bone-disease, _kak'ke'