SESSION 1894-95. 



I.— NATURAL HISTORY NOTES ON JAPAN. 

 By Dr WILLIAM WATSON. 

 " (Read Nov. 24, 1894.) 



Some of you may know Leplay's analysis of the various 

 nations of mankind. He divides civilised man into five 

 groups — fishermen, hunters, agriculturists, shepherds, and 

 camel - drivers ; with two groups of uncivilised men — fruit- 

 eaters and shellfish-eaters. This division is almost as im- 

 portant as the race division into Caucasians, Mongols, and 

 Negroes ; or the language division into Aryans, Semites, 

 Turanians, &c. Adopting Leplay's divisions, the Japanese 

 belong to the fisherman group. When not fishermen, they 

 are agriculturists. There is no trace of the hunter or the 

 shepherd in Japan. There is hardly any game in the country, 

 except a few deer, and wild pigs, and a very few black bears, 

 so there are no hunters. There is hardly a cow, sheep, or 

 goat in Japan, so there are no shepherds. The people live 

 entirely on fish and bread, as the Jews did in Christ's time, 

 and as the Greeks did in the time of Pericles. This is a very 

 different diet from the beef and bread of the Englishman, the 

 bread and lentils of the Hindoos of Upper India, or the dogs 

 and pigs which are consumed by the Chinaman. 



The Japanese character may be divined from his mode of 

 life and his food. He is the Shetlander of the East. A fisher- 

 man — and many Japanese are fishermen — goes into the open 



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