Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/36

 on opposite sides of the Straits of Shimonoseki, are rapidly growing. In this connection it is, perhaps, not inappropriate to make mention of the far-famed "Inland Sea," known to the Japanese as Seto-no-uchi (Between the Straits), or Seto-uchi, which lies between the main island, Shikoku and Kyūshiu.

The long coast line of Japan is a source of danger; for tidal waves occasionally spread devastation along the shore. These, with floods, earthquakes, eruptions, typhoons, and conflagrations, make a combination of calamities which annually prove very disastrous in Japan.

The country is subject to epidemics, like dysentery, smallpox, cholera, plague, and "La Grippe," which generally prove quite fatal. In 1890, for instance, some 50,000 Japanese were attacked by cholera, and about 30,000 died; and during two seasons of the "Russian epidemic" large numbers of Japanese were carried away. In both cases the foreigners living in Japan enjoyed comparative immunity. And now, on account of the advance in medical science, more stringent quarantine, and better sanitary measures, the mortality among Japanese has been considerably diminished. This fortunate result is largely due to the efforts of such men as Dr. Kitasato, whose fame as a bacteriologist is world-wide. The zoölogical pests of Japan are fleas, mosquitoes, and rats, all of which are very troublesome; but modern improvements minimize the extent of their power.