190 . NATURAL SCIENCE. March. 



think it an amusement proper for monasteries, where the monks 

 leading an idle lazy life, have little else to trouble their heads about. 

 However, this relates chiefly to the speculative part, for as to the 

 moral part, they hold it in great esteem, as being of a higher and 

 ■divine origin." In our own days, Mr. Walter Dening is said by 

 Professor Chamberlain to write as follows, — " It is well known that 

 one of the most marked characteristics of the Japanese mind is its 

 lack of interest in metaphysical, psychological, and ethical controversy 

 of all kinds. It is seldom you can get them to pay sufficient attention 

 to such questions to admit of their understanding even their main 

 outlines." 



Comprehending now some of the tendencies and limitations of 

 the Japanese character, we are better able to see what manner of 

 work their scientific men are best fitted to do. It is clear that their 

 :genius leads them in the direction of accurate, detailed investigation ; 

 ■either minute dissections of animal and vegetable structure, careful 

 observation of the habits of living beings, the appreciation of the 

 •slight differences so important in the problem of variation, precise 

 chemical analyses and physical measurements, or the construction of 

 ■elaborate apparatus for determining the slightest changes in 

 surrounding conditions. In the exhaustive and microscopic question- 

 ings that the needs of modern science bid us put without cessation to 

 ever-elusive nature, the new Japanese recruits will doubtless prove 

 our most valuable allies. 



Turning to the special branches of science with which we have 

 here been dealing, we remember that the Japanese zoologists are 

 privileged to live in a country where the fauna, both of land and sea, 

 is remarkably abundant, while the extraordinary variety of the 

 vegetation will ever render the self-same region a veritable Garden of 

 Eden to the botanist. Both classes of workers may here exercise to 

 the full the nomenclatorial propensities of the old Adam. Many of 

 the native animals and plants have, it is true, been already described 

 by European or American workers ; thus Dunker has done the 

 molluscs, Doderlein the sea-urchins, Pryer the butterflies, while 

 besides the botanists previously named we may note Miquel, 

 Maximowicz and Murray, specially instancing the beautiful work 

 ^' Om Japans Laminariaceer " by Kjellman and Petersen. These and 

 many other active workers have, however, by no means exhausted 

 the treasures of Japan. The Museums already contain largt 

 collections of unnamed specimens, now being worked out by nativt 

 students ; while we may expect these collections to be considerably 

 enriched when the northern part of the empire comes to be explored 

 more thoroughly than has hitherto been possible. But it is not 

 merely in systematic biology that we may still expect something new 

 from Japan ; this region has already yielded us forms of such far 

 reaching importance as the king-crab, the giant salamander and ih- 

 .glass-rope sponge, that we may continue to look eastwards for fresi 



