The Dolores star., 1901-10-25
BADNESS IN JAPAN.
EPIDEMIC OF THIS DISEASE IN
LAND OF MlKADO.
European Women Lose Their Hair
While Residing In the Japanese Fm-
pirs-Men's Beards Also Fall Out
Speculation as to Cause.

Correspondence OF London Specta-
tor: The following account of an cpl
demic of baldne in Japan may in
terest your readers. European women
who are res:d MS of Japan must live
in state of constant dread, for, ac-
cording to reports from that country.
they may at any time lose that greatly
valued possession, the hair. 4 large
number of women have already suf-
fered in this way; indeed, there was
an epidemic of badness at Chiba last
year, and there hase been an even
more serious one quite recently at
Osaka. the same province where, 1t
will be remembered. an extensive epi-
demic OF plague, waich subsequently
assumed formidable and alarming
character, prevailed in the last months
of 1889 and al the very beginning of
1900. The clinical course of the af-
fection under consideration offers
many points of interest, and d ffers
eminently both as regards extent and
character from the occurrence of sud
den badness. say for instance, after
enteric fever or any ether acute fever
attack. For it is stated that during
that epidemic of badness the loss of
hair comes to women land men also)
after very little. If any. premonitcry
warning The soap may. to all ap-
pearances. be quite healthy. and as far
as its external examination is con-
cerned. no morbid s,ans c3uld be de-
tected, and there may be no symptoms
either of actual illness or even OF
slight indisposition; but a woman may
find when she combs her hair soon
falls out in remarkable quantities and
soon she is part y, if not indeed quite.
bald. Or 1t may be that for some lit
tie time, as it has been observed in
some of the more acute cases, there
have been disturbances of vision, a
feeling of vertigo, diminished appetite
and digestive troubles. but none of
them being well dsfied or presenting
any definite character; it may, how
ever, be added that in som, c-ses, at
least, it was noted that a slight rise
of temperature has preceded the af
Fiction. TA@e fleets of the disease ex-
hibit several interesting peculiarities.
The bald patches are irreguiarly
spread over the head. but the first
large one genera ly a"p a on the
crown and eXtends down the back OF
the head instead of TO ward; thus it
may be that the ba k of the head is
quite bad and the ont cover d with
hair-the opposite of the course of
laIl IL )
Then, also, mems boards are ravaged
in peculiar manner. The left cheek
say. may be completely bereft of hair
while the rest of the beard is as usual
as also is the moystache, which for
tunately, is but slightly affected by
the disease. Another point which may
be noticed is that M s. of the victims
OF the epidemic are men, and more
children are attacked than men.
Strange to say it is men in the prime
of l.fe who have to suffe', not these
who are advanced in years. The latter
seem to be immune from the c-m-
plant. for no case is reported of man
who had white or gray hair suffering
any loss. and such is the eccentricity
of the disease. fair men suffer much
more than dark men. and dark women
much more than tn 5ir blonde sisters.
The cause of this curl 5us epidemic is
very difficult to determine, indeed,
there is no really satisfactory explain
alton Of it. Some of the native ply
sicians think that the Europeans are
affected by the climate, and others say
that the water is the cause of the
trouble, and third party are in
c ined to believe that TIE disease is
parasitic. Little wonder, then, in view
of this uncertainty, that the treat
ments tried for prevention as well as
cure, are We y far from being effica-
cious. There is an opportunity for a
physician. native or otherwise, to dis
tinguish himself