Balneotherapy is defined as the treatment performed in spa resorts, making use of several environmental factors such as thermal springs, climate, diet, physical exercise and so on as a tool of the therapy. It is, therefore, more often denominated Kurorttherapie or cure de station thermale in Europe.
Biological effects of the balneotherapy and it's machanism have been extensively investigated, particularly centered around the effects of thermal spring bathing in Japan. Many investigators have paied much attention toward chemicals dissolved in thermal springs, in hope of explaining the effects from pharmacological aspects. As far as bathing effects are concerned, however, convincing relationship between chemicals and biological effects has not been recognized.
Another concept of the balneotherapy, represented by the term of stress therapy or Reizserientherapie, was stemmed from the fact that environmental factors are non-specific stimulants in nature. Body reactions provoked by the stimulation are associated with functional activation of many organs, irrespective of stimulants. This non-specific reaction favors body in promoting health and accelarating convalescence. This concept seems to be supported by many reported observations and also by ours as well in which wound healing and postoperative recovery were promoted by thermal bathing.
Repeated application of a stimulus eventually induces adaptation or tolerance in the body. A cross-relationship has been reported between adaptative states against different stimulants of either physiologic or noxious, thus indicating that the adaptation is also a non-specific biological process. In this context, we observed that physically trained rats were much tolerant to hemorrhagic hypotension compared with sedentary controls.
The so-called nomalization effect of balneotherapy, which indicates a reduction of variance in biometrical data, has been widely accepted to be a phenomenon characteristically take place in the subjects following balneotherapy. This was, however, also recognized in men and animals subjected to an exercise training. This again seems to suggest that a biological sequence following balneotherapy is the adaptative body reaction which is non-specific to stimuli.
Thus, balneotherapy is considered to be a part of the stress therapy which stimulates homeostatic mechanism to develop adaptation and ultimately improve physiological fitness, when appropriately applied. Medical significance of the therapy seems to be apparent, both in promoting and restorating the health.

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Classic lesion and stimulation experiments has established areas in the brain that are involved in temperature regulation; heat loss center resides at the preoptic/anterior hypothalamic (PO/AH) area and heat conservation mechanism the posterior hypothalamus. However, since the time when temperature-sensitive neurone was found in the PO/AH area of dogs, it prevailed progressively with development of unit recording technique that temperature regulatory structure are widespread in the central nervous system, from diencephalon to spinal cord, and that stability of physiologic temperature regulation is achieved by means of a negative-feedback control system.
Studies on noradrenaline (NA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) systems, both of which are originated from nuclei in brain stem, made a great advances by Scandinavian investigaters and clarified gradually their relation to physiological function. According to amines theory which was proposed by FELDBERG and MYERS in 1963, NA and 5-HT play very important roles in thermoregulation, modifying the activity of the temperature-sensitive neurone in the PO/AH area, and then have a great influence on development of thermoregulatory responses.
Furthermore, it was clarified by us that a lot of warm-sensitive neurones localized in the raphe region of the midbrain and that although not all these are serotonergic neurones, the 5-HT system originated from the midbrain contains some axons of serotonergic neurones with high thermosensitivity. Hence, this indicates that the 5-HT system in the brain stem consists partly in thermoregulatory system and they works in couples. Based on the result that with an local administration of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) into the midbrain raphe region, blocking the action of serotonergic neurones, a rise in body temperature was induced, the 5-HT system works for responses to reduce body temperature in usual condition. With consideration of results mentioned above, it is possible to make an inferrence that circadien rhythm of body themperature may be due to diurnal changes of activation in the NA system and the 5-HT system of the brain stem. Activation state of the 5-HT system was determined in daytime and night by local injection of a given dose of LSD and predominant state of the action was verified in night. At present, a few studies has been focused on central mechanism of circadien rhythm of body temperature. So, the present paper has been not enough to satisfy a full explanation. More attentions should be paid for this subject in coming days.

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The purpose of this study was undertaken in order to compare the physical activity level of the mentally retarded children with respect to heart rate variation profiles.
Four male children diagnosed as hyperactive for reasons of excessive activity, four male children with hypoactive behaviors and four male ordinaryactive children were selected as the subjects from residential institution for the mentally retarded.
Heart rate signal was recorded continuously throughout a day by use of the telemetry method.
Average HR's expressed in percentage of rest value were 146% for the hyperactives and 147% for the ordinaryactives. In the hypoactive group, two different patterns were observed, those were one child(B) whose HR level was low and constant in almost all the situations and three children(A) whose HR was also rather low but occasionally reached high level under such condition that they were forced to move like the physical training period. Mean HR level of the hypoactives(A) and hypoactive(B) was 138% and 112%, respectively. Although the hyperactives and the ordinaryactives showed closely equal value, they had different HR distribution profile. Both very high HR and low HR were observed in the ordinaryactives but the hyperactives showed little periodic variation throughout the experimental period.
The ordinaryactives spent 7.2% of total experimental period at the HR level of 2 times the rest level and 4.2% for the hypoactives(A), but three of four hyperactives and the hypoactive(B) did not exceed this level.
During free play period, both the hypoactives(A) and the hypoactive(B) spent their time in the TV room or living room keeping low HR(122%), and the ordinaryactives played in the open air with high HR level(185%). The hyperactives were walking around everwhere he likes with somewhat higehr than mean level(155%).
To estimate the effects of these activity experiences on motor development, physical fitness tests were performed. Both the hyperactives and the hypoactives had poor motor abilities (grip sterength, back strength, vertical jump, trunk and 50 m run), those scores were in the range of -2.0 SD to -3.0 SD of intellectually normal group. Within this materials significant differences could not be found between both groups for each motor test measures.

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Fatiguability for sustained isometric contraction was investigated for human limb muscles by means of frequency analysis of the bipolar surface electromyogram. The contraction strength was two-thirds or a half of themaximum strength. The increase of slow wave ratio (the proportion of the integrated amplitude in the frequency component below 60 Hz to the total activity) in the electromyogram from initial slow wave ratio was calculated to evaluate muscle fatigue. The triceps brachii was more fatiguable than biceps brachii and brachioradialis, the extensor carpi ulnaris more than flexor carpi ulnaris, the semitendinosus more than rectus femoris, vastus medialis and vastus lateralis, and the tibialis anterior more than gastrocnemius and soleus. The muscles of lower limb, especially the knee extensors and the calf muscles, were less fatiguable than the muscles of upper limb. In the upper limb, the extensors were more fatiguable than the flexors. No consistent difference in fatiguability was observed between the one-joint and two-joint muscles. Differential fatiguability could be due to the differences in muscle fiber composition.

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The power spectra of bipolar surface EMG of the right biceps brachii in weak isometric contraction during fatiguing contraction of the left biceps brachii were obtained. The onset of the contraction of the left biceps caused no conspicuous change in the EMG power spectrum of the right biceps, except a small increase in the power around 15 Hz. The increase in the power around 15 Hz and/or the increase in the total power observed in the right biceps EMG could possibly be due to local muscle fatigue of the left biceps. These EMG changes could be explained by increased cortical control which might cause the grouping of motor units discharges and/or the recruitment of motor units. Crosscorrelation analysis of the EMGs of the right and left biceps showed no correlation between them at any time of the duration.

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A total of 520 blood samples from Japanese in and around Tokyo were tested with antiCob. All of them gave negative reactions, suggesting the absence or a very low frequency of the gene Cab in the Japanese population.

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A young female cranium was excavated from the Funatoyama Kofun in the Wakayama prefecture in March 1977. The mound was builded in the latter half of the 6th Century. The measurements have revealed the characteristics of the Kinai Japanese except for cranial length. Her cranial length is larger than those of the Kinai Japanese and the cranial index is smaller than that of the Ainu.

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