Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1917 — IN THE HOT BATHS OF JAPAN [ARTICLE]

IN THE HOT BATHS OF JAPAN

Immersion at Temperature That ... Would Scald the Occidental, Excites Wonder of Visitors. The number of baths taken by the Japanese at the hot springs, says the Herald of Asia, iifjid the length of time they remain in the water run counter to all western medical opinion regarding the utility of hot baths for invalids. THveoF*six times a day for an hour or longer" at a time would not be considered an uncommon regime. A smile of incredulity was raised some years ago when Professor dhamberlaln told us of a tiny spa where the bathers stayed in the water for a month er more, with stones on their laps to prevent them Trom floating in their sleep. Yet I could name another remote little spot where a very old man, well advanced in his nineties, in fact, has literally lived in the shallow warm water of the spring for years, his knees and neck supported by a beamrfrom early morn till midnight. The high temperature at which the baths are taken has excited the wonder es many travelers. At Kusatsu, for instance, that of the chief bath is 128 degrees Fahrenheit; but such a temperature necessarily involves special precautions before entering the bath, with a limit of from three and one-half to four minutes’ immersion. When we remember that water at 115 degrees Fahrenheit can just be borne by the hasd but not by the whole body, it is possible to realize the agony of afflicted humanity in the Kusatsu baths. At the same time the Japanese skin cannot be so sensitive as that of the European, for the daily tub is enjoyed by the native at a temperature that makes the boldest of us wince.