I have investigated the effects of hot spring bath on pituitary adrenocortical function in healthy or injured rats using eosinopenic response to bath.
1) The repeated baths were given to healthy rats three times daily for six days in three different hot springs and plain water. Changes in the eosinophil count after bathing followed a definite pattern. On the second day or fourth day no remarkable change was shown, however, on the seventh day the number of circulating eosinophils was found either to be falling or to have fallen to low or zero values and the eosinopenia was maintained for about two weeks. The highest eosinopenic state occured on the seventh day after the bath had finished. In acid or “Manjuyu” spring bath which are both hydrogen sulphide springs the duration of eosinopenia was longer than in muriated spring or plain water bath and in the rats bathed in acid or “Manjuyu” spring a decrease of the body weight was recognized.
2) A single bath was performed in two ways: healthy rats were bathed in acid or muriated spring and injured rats in acid spring. In these cases the change of the eosinophil count after hot spring bath was compared with corresponding results after plain water bath or without it. In healthy rats no remarkable change was shown in the eosinophil count. However, in injured rats the various differences of the change were recognized after hot spring bath. When phenobarbital, magnesium sulphate, pilocarpin, vagostigmin had been injected or an adrenal had been excised, a marked fall in the eosinophils was recognized after hot spring bath. On the contrary when ephedrin or histamin had been injected the degree of the eosinophil depression by their medicaments was decreased. When Coramin had been injected no different change was produced in eosinophil count after hot spring bath and when adrenalin or acetylcholin had been injected no definite tendency was shown after hot spring or plain water bath.
From these experimental results I can conclude that pituitary adrenocortical hyperactivity occurs by the proper use of hot spring bath cure and these actions of hot spring are not similar in different hot springs and the effects of hot spring bath on patuitary adrenocortical function are remarkably different between in healthy and in injured animals. When adrenocortical failure is present, central nervous system are injured or parasympathetic nervous system are stimulated the hyperactivity of pituitary adrenocortex by hot spring bath is increased.

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I have investigated the neutrophilic or eosinopenic response and the maximal decrease of lymphocytes count after administration of ACTH in normal persons and patients with miscellaneous conditions.
1) It is possible to divide the subjects into 3 groups according to the neutrophilic response to ACTH injecfion: neutrophilia more than 3000 or less than 3000, or no significant change.
In normal persons the neutrophil counts increased more than 3000.
On the contrary in patients with nervous system or endocrine diseases the neutrophil response was deficient or absent.
2) In patients with rheumatism the neutrophil response gradually increased when clinical symptoms were relieved by treatment.
3) It was conjecturable that there is some connection between the neutrophil response and diencephalic function.
4) The patients who showed more than 2200 lymphocytes per cmm of penpheral blood after administration of ACTH were only 6 (cerebral apoplexy 1, periodic paralysis 1, hemorrhage into spinal cords? 1 and rheumatism 3) in 38 cases.

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Rats were irradiated on the left side of the abdomen with m. m. wave (8.6m. m.) at a skin, —antenna distance of 3cm., average plate current 4.0mA., plate voltage 5.2kV., peak output 23kW., average output 5.1W. Temperature of the abdomen and the hypophysis was measured with needle type thermopile. Influences on leucocyte count and adrenal cholesterol were also studied.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) The irradiation of the abdomen on one side, was followed by a rise of temperature on the same side, but little effect was proved on the other side. The fact showed that the temperature at a depth of 2-3cm. was hardly influenced directly by m. m. wave irradiation and that the later rise of temperature was mainly caused by an increase of blood circulation. The temperature of the hypophysis rose slowly from 15min. after the start of the irradiation in the same manner. The irradiated region was overheated when the blood circulation was stopped by death while the temperature of the hypophysis decreaed rapidly.
2) The circulating leucoytes were decreased 4 hours after the irradiation, suggesting a stimulation of the hypophyseal-adrenal system. The leucocyte counts were increased by a series of irradiations, and this fact was explained partly as an effect of the secondary infection.
3) The irradiation of one of the bilateral adrenal regions decreased cholesterol content, especially ester cholesterol, of both adrenals.
From these results no direct effect of millimeter wave on the adrenal was proved in the normal rats.

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Using thermal water of “Ikaho” (sulphated earthy springs), the author studied the effects of a series of thermal baths or drinking on the sensitivity of mice against poisons concerning the lethal dosis and mortality rate, and the histological changes of the injured liver.
The results were as follows:
1) A series of bathing or drinking for 3 days produced no definite change in the death-rate caused by carbontetrachloride intoxication.
2) After a series of thermal baths or drinking for 2 weeks death-rates of CCl₄, and myoarsenobenzole poisoning were remarkably decreased. The liver injury by CCl₄, was also effectively protected by a series of thermal baths. Therefore a prophylactic effect of the external and internal use of the thermal water against poisoning was proved.
3) Aging of the thermal water diminished the favorable effect against the CCl₄ poisoning.
4) The decrease in the sensitivity of mice against CCl₄ returned gradually to the former state in a week after the cessation of the treatment.
5) The prophylactic effect of thermal water against poisoning showed seasonal difference. It could not be obtained in summer.
6) Thermal baths taken soon after peroral administration of CCl₄, proved rather injurious both with the mortality rate and liver changes.
7) After a series of thermal baths for 2 weeks histological findings of the liver and the adrenals revealed an enhanced cell activity. The mechanism of the prophylactic effect of the external and internal use of the thermal water against poisoning is supposed to be due to the stimulation of the activities of the liver, the adrenals, and the reticuloendothelial system, related to the mechanism of adaptation.

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Using thermal waters of Tokyo, i. e. “Heiwazima” (bromic and iodic brine spring) and “Zyuniso” (alkaline muriated spring), the author studied the effect of a series of thermal baths for two weeks on the sensitivity of mice against carbon tetrachloride concerning the lethal dosis and mortality rate. But no definite change was seen in the lethal dosis and mortality rate contraty to the previously repoted beneficial effect of the thermal water of “Ikaho”. Thermal origin of the Ikaho Hot Springs is thought to derive from Volcano Haruna. Heiwazima and Zyuniso Hot Springs have probably no such source of juvenile waters. And the above-mentioned increase in the resistance of mice against carbon tetrachloride by thermal baths may be a biological proof to show the difference between the two kinds of thermal springs.

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Kusazu Spa is situated, on a highland, 1, 170 meters above the sea level. It has strongly acid springs with pH at 1.5--1.7. Since ancient times this Spa has been well-known of its peculiar bathing method called “Jikan-Yu” i. e. “Time Limit Bath”. This method consists of bathing in a strongly acid spring of Kusazu at a high temperature of 47-48°C four times a day, each time for three minutes. When bathers have practised this bathing method for 1-2 weeks, many of them got a kind of dermatitis on the skin about the groings and the axillae.
This dermatitis was called “Tadare” or “Acid Spring Dermatitis”, through which they believed to get free from hardly curable chronic diseases.
“Tadare” was once explained as a proof of flowing out of some noxious agents from the body.
In the present study, fifty-four bathers, who had come to Kusazu in the summers of 1957 and 1958 for spa treatment, were investigated. These fifty-four bathers were divided into three groups.
The first group, consisting of twenty-one bathers, took the “Time Limit Bath”, the second group, consisting of twenty-three, took an ordinary hot spring bath at 40-45°C, staying in hotels or hospital, and the third group, consisting of ten subjects, took no bath at all as a control.
Before they start bathing blood specimen was taken out of their cubital vein and serum cholesterol level was measured by Sperry-Webb's method. Similar measurement was carried on every seventh day.
The result obtained was as follows:
1) The serum cholesterol level of the first group decreased in the first week till around the end of the second week, but during the third week the cholesterol level began to recover their initial value.
2) The marked fall of the total cholesterol and ester cholesterol levels were significant, but the changes in the free cholesterol levels and the ester ratio proved insignificant.
3) Similar results were obtained from many of the bathers belonging to the second group who took baths at an moderately high temperature, but in this case the fall of the serum cholesterol levels proved not significantly marked.
5) No fall in the serum cholesterol levels were observed among the third group who had taken no bath.
Misawa and Oshima had proved that the peculiar bathing method in Kusazu promoted phagocytosis of leucocytes, increased bactericidal activities of the blood and agglutinin titers in the serum, and brought temporary impairment of liver function. They explained the effect of the spa treatment as a stimulation therapy. Saito an others showed an enhanced adrenocortical activity during the bath dermatitis by measuring the eosinophil count in the blood and 17-KS-elimination in the urine.
Yamada proved an increase in plasma PBI content and Kogure showed a rise of oestrogen excretion in the urine during the spa treatment.
The above-mentioned changes in the serum cholesterol level also coincide the stimulating effect of the spa treatment in Kusazu.

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