On the eastern coast of Asia is a festoon-like group of islands, extending from the tip of Kamchatka on the north obliquely down toward the equator to almost within reach of the peninsula of Malacca on the south, a distance of nearly 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers). These islands compose Japan proper. They are between 77 and 200 miles (124 and 322 kilometers) wide, and the census of 1935 gave their population as 74,000,000. The area is not larger than that of the state of California, but so extensive is the archipelago north and south that there are subarctic, temperate, semitropical and tropical temperatures.
It is well known that the people in this area have always been free from hay fever, although other forms of allergic disorder, such as bronchial asthma, migraine, urticaria and atopic dermatoses, are as prevalent as in other parts of the world. Missionaries, business men and tourists