In opposition to all European sanitary ideas, the mineral springs of Japan are used at very high temperatures. Invalids enter baths of from 110° to 115° Fahrenheit, and their healthy friends go in with them for the sake of killing time agreeably. At Kusatsu the temperature of the baths is higher still. It ranges from 120° to 130° Fahrenheit; and as the first effect of the waters is to bring out sores all over the body, even if there were none before, the sufferings of those condemned to "make a cure" may be imagined. So excruciating is the agony that experience has dictated a peculiar device for meeting it:—the bathers are subjected to military discipline. The squad of unfortunates approaches the bath to the sound of the trumpet, they wet their scalps and foreheads at another trumpet blast, in order to prevent a rush of blood to the head, and so on throughout the performance, notice being given to them of the passing of the minutes while they sit boiling, with a view to keeping up their courage by the knowledge that the ordeal will soon be over. The whole life at Kusatsu is so strange that he whose stomach is not easily upset by nasty sights would do well to go and inspect it. To squeamish persons we say most emphatically, "Keep away!"
Book recommended. Murray's Handbook for Japan, passim.
Mirrors. Old-fashioned Japanese mirrors are circular, and are made of metal,—generally of bronze coated on the front with an amalgam of tin and quicksilver beautifully polished. The back is adorned in relief with flowers, birds, or Chinese characters, and there is a handle on one side, the general appearance being that of a sort of handsome metal fan.
An extraordinary peculiarity characterises some of these Japanese mirrors: sunlight reflected from their face displays a luminous image of the design on their back! So strange a phenomenon has naturally attracted the attention of men of science. After much speculation, it has been clearly proved by Professors Ayrton and Perry to arise from the fact that the curvature of the face of the mirror over the plain part of the back is greater than over
