The year 1888 beheld what is known as the “Baby War.” The report was spread abroad that the Europeans and Americans were stealing children and boiling them in kettles for food. It was also generally believed that the foreigners caught women and cut off their breasts in order to extract from them the condensed milk which was so commonly used among the foreign residents. The Koreans knew that the foreigners had no cows and they could explain the use of milk only on the above theory. The _modus operandi_ was said to be as follows. The foreigners were possessed of a peculiar drug which became a powerful gas when introduced into the mouth. Approaching a Korean paper covered lattice door at the dead of night the operator would make a tiny hole in the paper and applying his mouth to it would blow the gas into the room. The effect would be that if there were a woman in the room she would waken and be seized with an uncontrolable desire to go outside. Once without the door, the foreigner would seize her, cut off her breasts and return to his home. It was believed that they had paid agents among the people to whom they taught the secret and whom they sent about the country to secure women’s breasts. Two suspicious looking men were set upon in Hong-ch‘ŭn charged with being breast-hunters. They narrowly escaped with their lives. For a short time there was imminent danger of an uprising but a royal proclamation couched in trenchant language did much to calm the excitement and the danger subsided as suddenly as it had arisen. In Eui-ju there was a most destructive flood in which 300 lives were lost and 1927 houses were swept away. Chapter XVII. Corruption.... edicts of reform.... trouble with Japan.... envoy to Europe.... death of Queen Cho.... the fisheries dispute.... oppression.... retrogression.... excessive taxation.... insurrections.... foreigners threatened.... on the verge of anarchy.... prefects punished.... revolt in Song-do.... Tong-hak manifesto.... government helpless.... Japan uneasy.... Kim Ok-kyun murdered.... revolting barbarity.... the fall of Chŭn-ju.... Korea asks China for help.... Chinese troops arrive.... Japanese movements.... the other powers interfere.... Japanese demands.... proposed reforms.... the palace taken by the Japanese.... the sinking of the Kowshing.... war declared.... Korea breaks with China.... Japan promises to leave Shanghai alone.... Japanese in Shanghai.... battle of Asan.... battle of P’yŭng-yang.... battle of the Yalu.