192 NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



spells these names with a capital R and a capital S, and un- 

 consciously slides into regarding them as being, in some sort, actual 

 things, even individualities. . . . Such mythology (for mythology 

 it is, albeit those who have been reared under the exclusive influence 

 of European modes of expression may not recognise it as such) is 

 utterly alien to the matter-of-fact Far-Eastern mind." There are also 

 minor difficulties, such as the apparent want both of a passive voice 

 and of a comparative, all which combine with the others to render the 

 translation of European scientific works into Japanese a matter 

 almost of impossibility. These difficulties are evaded rather than 

 overcome by the necessity the Japanese find themselves under of 

 learning almost all their science through the medium of some foreign 

 language, usually English, and by the growing habit of introducing 

 foreign phrases or at least foreign modes of expression into their 

 own writings. 



The second obstacle, that presented by the ideographic writing 

 common to Japan and China, is one that chiefly affects the foreign 

 readers of Japanese, although I am inclined to believe, from conver- 

 sations with many native friends, that it also places a serious stumbling- 

 block in the way of their own rising generation. It is quite clear that 

 no foreigner, who does not intend to make the Japanese language his 

 life-study, will ever attempt to learn two distinct forms of syllabary 

 and some four thousand ideographs, even for the sake of reading the 

 description of a new species of snail or the account of a novel method of 

 cell-division. Unfortunately one can hardly doubt that the Japanese 

 will not always write their scientific papers in English. Indeed at 

 the present day there is much of value that makes its appearance in 

 the native tongue ; and as foreigners come to exert less and less 

 influence in the education of the country the return to the Japanese, 

 language is likely to become more general. The prospect is somewhat 

 appalling. Czech is a sufficient hindrance, and Russian daunts most 

 workers : what shall we do when the floodgates of Japanese scientific 

 literature are opened upon us? There is one hope left. The Japanese 

 language does not in itself present insuperable difficulties, and if the 

 Japanese would only consent to write it in the ordinary Roman alphabet, 

 we should hardly have cause for grumbling. This solution of the 

 problem has already presented itself to the Japanese, and in 1885 a 

 society with this object, called the Romaji-Kai, was founded by 

 Professor Toyama and others. Unfortunately the anti-European 

 reaction, which set in in i88g, has made this society somewhat 

 unpopular, and the Japanese students to whom I put the case had 

 plenty of reasons to offer against the proposed change. This is not 

 the place to discuss the question in full ; but two facts seem to show 

 that the old methods can hardly survive in the modern struggle for 

 existence. One is that the sender of a telegram is obliged to use 

 either Roman characters or the comparatively simple syllabary known 

 as the Kata-kana. The other is that, even in inland towns such as 



