19th-Century Medicine Analyzed With Muons in Japan

OSAKA, JAPAN—According to a report in The Asahi Shimbun, researchers from Osaka University and their colleagues employed muonic X-ray analysis at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex to identify the contents of a sealed nineteenth-century glass bottle in their collections. The bottle is one of more than 20 in a medicine chest used by Ogata Koan, a physician who established an academy of Western-style technology and medicine in Osaka in the mid-nineteenth century. The bottle’s lid is marked with a kanji character for “kan,” which was thought to indicate the bottle held “kanko,” or mercuric chloride. The light generated by the muons passing through the glass and striking the powder revealed that it does contain mercury and chlorine. “It is thought that kanko was not used by itself, but was blended with other medicinal substances to treat patients suffering from strokes and rheumatism-like symptoms,” said team member Kyoko Takahashi, who has examined Ogata’s letters and treatment instructions. To read about Japanese peasants' resistance to wildly fluctuating taxes on rice yields during the Tokugawa era, go to "Rice Farmer Rebellions."