The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1901-11-30
BAT N ESS TN ,J.Al Al. Pan.
EPIDEMIC OF THIS DISEASE IN
LAND or il<ADO D.
European Women Lose TIleir Hair
While Residing in the Japanese EN-
pire Mems Boards Also Tall Out ~
Speculation as to Cause.

Correspondence of London Specta-
tor: The following account Of an cpl
demic OF badness in Japan may in
sterest your readers. European women
who are residents of Japan must live
LIN a state of constant dread, for, &C
cording to reports from that country,
| they may at any time lose that greatly
valued possession, the hair. % A large
number OF women have already sui
fered in this way; indeed, there was
AN epidemic Of badness at Chiba last
/ year, and there base been an even
more serious one quite recently at
Osaka, the same province where, it
will be remembered, an extensive cpl
demfc Of plague, which subsequently
assumed a formidable and alarming
character, prevailed in the last months
of 1889 and at the very beginning Of
1900. The clinical course of the af-I
( lection under consid Grafton offers
many points Of interest, and differs
eminently both as regards extent and
character from the occurrence of sud-
den badness, say, for instance, after
enteric fever or any other acute fever
attack. For it is stated that during
that epidemic Of badness the loss OF
hair comes to women (and men also)
after very little, if any, premonitory
warning. The scalp may, to all ap-
pearances, be-quite healthy, and, as far
as its external examination is con-
|>cerned, no morbid signs could be de-
tected, and there may be no symptoms
either Of actual illness Or even Of
slight indisposition; but woman may
find when she combs her hair soon
after rising in the morning, that it
falls out in remarkable quantities. and
soon she is partly, if not indeed quite,
bald. Or it 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 we'll defined or presenting
any definite, character; it may, how.
ever, be added that in some cases, at
least, it was noted that a slight rise
Of temperature has preceded the af-
Fiction. The effects Of the disease ex-
hibit several interesting paculiarities.
The bald patches are irregularly
spread over the head, but the first
large one generally APPEARS, on. the
crown and extends down the back Of
the head instead Of forward; thus it
may be that the back of the head is
quite bad and the front covered with
hair-the opposite Of the course OF
badness as we know it in Europe
Then, also, mems boards are Favaged,
in a 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 moustache, which, for
tunately, is but slightly affected by
the disease. Another point which may
be noticed is that most of the victims
Of the epidemic are women, and more
children are attacked than, men.
Strange to say it is men in the prime
of life who have to suffer, not those
who are advanced in years. The latter
seem to be immune from the COM
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 their blonde sisters.
The cause of this curious epidemic is
very difficult to determine, indeed,
there is no really satisfactory explain
alton of it. Some of the native pny-
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 the disease is
parasitic. Little wonder, then, in view
of this uncertainty, that the treat
ments tried for prevention as well as
cure, are very far from being effica-
cious. There is an opportunity for a
physician, native or otherwise, to dis
tinguish himself.
Monks Have a Monopoly.
The monopoly which the Carthu-z