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panese only put fire to certain fixed parts of the body the moxas are applied to each affected spot on the body and on the surface comprised in this perimeter. Four kinds of moxas are used respectively called, large, middling, small and “moxa for the face.” The last is used for the face alone.)
On the day fixed for this operation, a bath is taken before noon, and then interdicted. The moxas are applied at 8 o’clock (2 p.m.) The use of the bath is suspended until the following day at 10 a.m. If a bath were taken immediately after the operation the fever caused by cauterization would be exacerbated and this would be dangerous.
Whatever may be the gravity of the leprosy, the cautery must not be applied without intermission. After each application there must be an interval of five days when the moxas must be placed between the former blisters.
Be the gravity of the malady what it may, the preceding rules must absolutely be adhered to.
(A great number of the unfortunate victims of this dreadful disease are to be met with at Kusatsu. It is easy to recognize them by the sight of their bodies which are literally covered with the scars of cautery. In such numbers, indeed, do these scars exist that but for their regularity it would be imagined they were due to a natural eruption. It is pretended that no pain is felt during these cruel operations, and that a complete insensibility of the skin is one of the characteristics of leprosy. The Japanese do not regard it as contagious except through sexual contact. They add, however, that women are then attacked with leprosy.
One of the first symptoms of leprosy consists in a whiteness and unusual brilliancy of the skin. The disease is virtually incurable, and the severest treatment arrests its course but slightly. Its frighful effects in Japan must be known to all.)
In conclusion, the sick of all the provinces (of Japan) who require to take the waters can go to Kusatzu when
