["Kōmō Igen" written by Gōda Kyūgo]

In 1762, three years after the publication of "Zōshi" (the first anatomical book written by a Japanese) by Yamawaki Tōyō, Gōda Kyūgo, one of the disciples of Tōyō, went to Nagasaki. During his two and a half month stay there he learned Dutch style medicine, especially internal medicine, from the translator Yoshio Kōgyū and his younger brother, by the aid of imported Dutch medical books. Kyūgo recorded their lectures in five volume notes and entitled it "Kōmō Igen" (Medicine of the Netherlands). The natures, symptoms and diagnoses of several diseases, including infectious and epidemic diseases and the way of treatments were recorded in the notes. This manuscript attempts to introduce the contents of "Kōmō Igen" together with its back ground and stresses the importance of these notes for the beginnings of modern medicine in 18th century Japan. The significance of the "Kōmō Igen" as a historical medical literature is also pointed out.