抄録
What people call Bälz's Diary (“Erwin Bälz, Das Leben eines deutschen Arztes im erwachenden Japan, ” 1931) has been often quoted to the others' writings, all the more because it is a very valuable work as a historical document of the Meiji era in Japan, though his descriptions have sometimes been accepted uncritically, and then generalized as historical facts. When we examine them in detail, we occasionally find that his statements were derived from his mere misunderstandings and hasty conclusions, but we can still get some unexpectedly good suggestions from them. For example, we have studied his statements concerning the opening ceremony of the Medical School of Tokyo University which was held on the 22nd of April, 1879, which Japanese Emperor attended. After comparing Bälz's statements with other ones, considering the background of the political and financial situation of Japan in those days, we have made several discoveries and discussed about them in this paper. As mentioned above, it is thought important and advantageous to reexamine Bälz's records in order to understand Japanese medical history and then whole Japanese history of those days.
