The ideas of “Keiraku” and “Keiketsu” are fundamental principle in acupuncture and moxibustion which have been developed in the East since ancient times. The system of “Keiraku” derives from a philosophical idea of the East and is the result of analysis and synthesis of many years experiences by Chinese medical men. “Keiraku” are the lines of reaction points, while “Keiketsu” are the points on “Keiraku” determined upon human body surface where therapeutic stimuli are to apply.
“Keiraku” and “Keiketsu” are functional reaction zone and points, which are projected upon the surface of the body corresponding to the disorders of the internal organs. They are supposed to be located not only planely upon the skin but also expand three-dimensionally so deeply as far as into the subcutaneous tissues. It has been scarcely discussed, whether they should really exist or not, and whether they might have or not such special meaning as is believed in the field of practical therapists.
In order to clarify the special characters of “Keiraku” and “Keiketsu” the author measured the cutaneous electric resistance in relation to the changes of the superficial structure of the skin and detected subcutaneous induration objectively with a massagekymograph corresponding to the changes in the deeper structure. And then the existence of “Keiraku” and “Keiketsu” was discussed through experimental researches and consequently following results were obtained:
To measure the electric resistance of a minute area of the skin an apparatus with a small sharp electric pole, devised by Professor Ishikawa of the Kanazawa University, was used and the distribution of the cutaneous points with markedly decreased electric resistance was investigated in healthy and diseased subjects.
It was revealed that there are several localized spots on the skin (with dimension of about 1×1mm²) which showed a distinguished decrease in the electric resistance. In some cases these “points of decreased cutaneous electric resistance” (P. d. c. e. r.) coincided with the sites of “Keiketsu”. The relative values of electric resistance at these points and the surrounding skin area are about one to hundred.
And these P. d. c. e. r. changed their sites and degree of decrease by hours, clays, and weeks. Namely they showed daily or weekly changes in their distribution and character.
In the dorsal region of 3 cases out of 5 subjects (60%) the zone of P. d. c. e. r. appeared paravertebrally 4cm both sides of the spinal column and on the middle line between the proc. spinosi. In 4 out of the 5 cases groupings of the P. d. c. e. r. were recognized between the mammae, in the mesogastric area, hvpochondrium, and on the abdominal middle line. This finding corresponds with “Keiraku” (reflected line) of “Yu” points and “Bo” points which are highly estimated in the diagnostic examination on dorsal and ventral regions in the Eastern Medicine.
In 85 cases of healthy subjects it was discovered that the distribution of the P. d. c. e. r. appeared densely in the neck, upper abdominal regions, hypochondrium, loins, and cubital regions. This dense distribution of the P. d. c. e. r. coincides also with clinically important “Keiketsu” (reflected or reaction point) in the Eastern Medicine. And in these areas a dense distribution of the subcutaneous indurated nodules was detected too. The distribution of the P. d. c. e. r. on the upper and lower limbs indicated the existence of longitudinally line shaping distribution of reaction points, e. g. “Keiraku”. Especially in 9 cases of 85 subjects a distribution of P. d. c. e. r. was found which closely resembles with “Keiraku” and “Keiketsu”.
Throughout the whole experiments th

View full abstract

As tuberculous patients go through various stages of development, their bathing during the treatment is one of the most difficult problems that we clinicians often meet with.
A systematic study has been made on this problem at our Instiute, and in this report the author describes the findings on the problem whether tuberculous patients should or should not bathe in hot springs, obtained from a study on serum cholinesterase activity (Ch-E). Ch-E was determined by Takada-Shibata's method in this study and the subjects for experiments were chosen from tuberculous patients admitted to the National Narugo Hospital. Examinations were made after they were divided into minimal, moderately advanced, and far advanced group, according to the classification of the National Tuberculosis Association of America.
Examination of changes in serum Ch-E values of tuberculous patients and problems concerning hot-spring bathing of tuberculous patients led to the following conclusions:
1) Serum Gh-E values of tuberculous patients are lower than those of healthy persons and they tend to be lower according to the severity of the extent of diseases, especially in the cases of active tuberculosis.
2) A certain degree of parallel relation is observable between serum Ch-E value and the blood sedimentation rate of tuberculous patients.
3) No correlation is found between the serum Ch-E value and serum protein of tuberculous patients, except in some of the far advanced cases of tuberculousis.
4) Observation of changes in serum Ch-E value in tuberculous patients by chemotherapy reveals, that serum Ch-E value will return to the normal value rapidly with improvement of clinical symptoms such as body weight, blood sedimentation rate and negativization of bacilli, etc; and that serum Ch-E values return to the normal value most rapidly. Consequently, serum Ch-E values are conceived to be an indication in the judgment of effects of chemotherapy and of prognosis.
5) Immediately after bathing, serum Ch-E values either rise or fall in healthy adults as well as minimal, and moderately advanced cases, showing individual differences, but they recover their pre-bath values in two hours after bathing. In far advanced cases, and in a part of moderately advanced cases, serum Ch-E values cannot recover their pre-bath values even 2 hours after bathing.
6) Observation of changes in serum Ch-E values before and after single bathing, in the course of curative bathing, reveals that the pronounced changes observed in minimal, and moderately advanced cases in the early stage of curative bathing became gradually less in number until they are no longer observable. That is socalled phenomenon of accommodation and it can be observed by the stimulation of hot-spring bathing.
7) Hot-spring bathing for curative bathing brings about a good effect in clinical symptoms on those patients in whom the accommodation phenomenon is sufficiently apparent, but bad effects are sometimes observable in those, in whom the accommodation phenomenon cannot be observed.
8) It was found from the results described above, that changes in serum Ch-E values are due mainly to non-specific stimulation of hot-spring bathing. Care must be exercised in far advanced cases in which changes are most pronounced, and in which the return to their pre-bath values is slow, especially in those, who have some defects against the appearance of the accommodation phenomenon, consequently against that of accommodation phenomenon in the course of curative bathing. On the other hand, hot-spring bathing two to three times a week does more good than bad for tuberculous patients who show an accommodation phenomenon vis-a-vis any bathing just as the healthy persons.

View full abstract

A study on hot-spring bathing and variation in serum electrolyte led to the following conclusions:
1) Single bathing brought about variations in serum Na, K and Ca content, but variations in serum Na and K content are less than those in serum Ca content. These variations either increase or decrease, showing that there is no definite tendency in them; it clearly shows, that variations differ from parson to person. The variation is most pronounced immediately after bathing and usually returns to the value before bathing in about 90 minutes.
Similarly there is individual difference in the correlation between each electrolyte, and no definite tendency is observable in the increase or decrease in Na and K, and K and Ca.
2) The changes in elecrolyte brought about by single bathing gradually decreased with the progress of curative bathing until what is called adaptation phenomenon appeared. This is true of the correlation of each electrolyte, especially of the variation in Ca/K.
3) On the other hand, it has been made clear from a number of studies made in our Institute that a close relation exists between balneal treatment and the autonomic nervous system.
Consequently, the variations in serum electrolyte caused by bathing can be understood more clearly by considering them to he those in the autonomic nervous system caused by a nonspecific stimulation of bathing rather than by considering them to be due to the percutaneous absorption of the electrolyte in bathing water.

View full abstract

In summarizing the variations in serum Na, K and Ca content caused by bathing in 23 cases of rheumatoid arthritis patients in contrast with the results obtained from healthy persons described in Report I, it was found that the variation in serum Na, K and Ca content caused by single bathing was not only in one direction such as increase or decrease but differed with person to person, and that the changes in rheumatoid arthritis patients immediately after bathing were similar to those in healthy persons: compared with healthy persons, the variation in rheumatoid arthritis patients lasted longer; in healthy persons, they returned to the value before bathing, 90 minutes after bathing in most cases, but in rheumatoid arthritis patients, there were 11 cases in Na content, 16 cases in K content and 6 cases in Ca content which showed a significant difference from the value before bathing even 90 minutes after bathing, which indicated the presence of some defects in the accommodation function of electrolyte in rheumatoid arthritis patients and that it was closely connected with the accommodation of serum electrolyte.
It was also seen that the autonomic nervous system in rheumatoid arthritis patients was unstable, compared with healthy persons and that there were some defects in the adaptability against bathing stimulation.
From the fact that the variation in Ca/K content, which seemed to be most closely related with the autonomic nervous system, was more pronounced in subacute than in chronic type of rheumatoid arthritis, it could be concluded that the autonomic nervous system might be more unstable in the subacute type.
These changes caused by single bathing would gradually decrease with the institution of curative bathing, and became no longer observable in healthy persons on the 12th day of bathing in most cases, but still observable in the majority of rheumatoid arthritis patients even on the 19th day of bathing. However, even in rheumatoid arthritis patients, the variation gradually grew smaller in degree, though slight, and there seemed to be no particular difference between the two. In the case of Ca/K, the change became stable on the 19th day of bathing in most cases. In these cases, some improvement was made in the symptoms, showing that bathing had a good effect on rheumatoid arthritis patients by adjusting their unstable autonomic nervous systems.
The following conclusion was drawn from the summarization of the experimental results mentioned in the preceding sections.
1) No significant difference was found in serum Na, K and Ca values between rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy subjects, except a slightly low serum K and a great variety of serum Ca values in the former group.
The values proved to be lower in the chronic type than in the acute or subacute type, especially in serum Ca.
2) Serum Na, K and Ca of rheumatoid arthritis patients, similar to the cases of healthy subjects, did not show any definite trend of variations which lasted for a longer time in rheumatoid arthritis and it did not return to the pre-bathing values even 90 minutes after bathing. Therefore it was thought that some defect was present in the accommodation function of the serum electrolyte in rheumatoid arthritis patients, whih caused unstability in their autonomic nervous system. This was especially pronounced in both acute and subacute groups.
3) Similar to the cases of healthy subjects, the variation of serum Na, K and Ca content became gradually stable after a series of bathing but it took longer than in healthy subjects and the variation was still observable in the majority of cases even on the 19th day of bathing. Same kind of the process was observed in both groups. 4) An inference could be made from the facts mentioned above that some defect was present in the accommodation function of the serum electrolyte in rheumatoid arthritis patients which was gradually adjusted by bathing. It was conceivable that balneolog

View full abstract