May 24, 1888] 



NATURE 



83 



NATURAL SCIENCE IN JAPAN. 



WITH the close of our eventful Jubilee year there 

 was completed the first volume of a new journal 

 of science which is destined to play a very important part 

 in the advance of knowledge. We refer to the Journal 

 of the College of Science of the Imperial University of 

 Japan, already noted in these pages. 



This periodical is issued under the joint editorship of 

 four professors in the College whence it originated. These 

 gentlemen, one only of whom is an Englishman, constitute 

 a publishing committee : they have adopted the wise plan 

 of issuing all communications on all subjects recognized 

 within the one cover, and under their supervision there 

 have already appeared a series of original papers of con- 

 siderable interest, so far at least as those biological are 

 concerned. The work is being well done : authors, 



editors, publishers, and craftsmen appear to be working 

 harmoniously in the production of a journal which, while 

 it reflects the utmost credit on all, leaves nothing to be 

 desired. Twenty-one original monographs have been set 

 up, three of them in German, the rest in English. Of 

 these five are biological, while six are devoted to physics, 

 four to chemistry, three to seismology, and two to geology 

 proper. It is to the first-named that we wish now to 

 refer. The first paper published deals with the life-history 

 of a parasite (Ugimya sericaria) which works fearful 

 havoc among the silkworms in Japan : this monograph is 

 in itself interesting, apart from its intrinsic merit, as 

 showing that our Eastern friends are fully alive to the 

 so-called practical application of their work. This and 

 other valuable papers which we might name testify most 

 satisfactorily to the thoroughness of, at any rate, one side 

 of the undertaking ; others there are which show that 



The Marine Biological Station of the Imperial University at Misaki. 



these investigators are fully prepared to face some of the 

 most formidable problems now exercising the mind of the 

 zoologist, and in dealing with such problems they display 

 a diligent attention and cautious generalization, such as 

 are occasionally looked for in vain in writings nearer 

 home. If this excellent beginning is, in these respect^, 

 indicative of that which is to follow, only results of the 

 greatest value can ensue. 



Of the zoological communications two are excep- 

 tional — we refer to those contributed by Prof. K. 

 Mitsukuri, of the Imperial University, Tokio. One of 

 these, on the germinal layers in Chelonia (produced in 

 conjunction with his assistant, Ishikawa), has previously 

 appeared in our own Journal of Microscopical Science. 

 The other is deserving of especial comment, for it brings 

 tidings of the establishment of a marine biological station 

 of the Imperial University, at Misaki. 



Misaki is a fishing settlement to the west of the Bay of 

 Tokio, easily accessible, we are told, from Tokio or 

 Yokohama in a day. Its waters have a direct interest for 

 Western zoologists, in the fact that they have given birth 

 to most of those museum specimens of Hyalonema, with 

 which the skilful Japanese so long duped the rest of the 

 world. Geographically, the relations of Japan to Asia 

 may be appropriately compared with those of Britain to 

 Europe : in their greater climatic variations, however, the 

 Easterns have an advantage, if only by way of variety in 

 the fauna and flora thereby induced. Again, Misaki, says 

 Prof. Mitsukuri, has "long been a favourite collecting 

 ground for naturalists ; almost every group of animals 

 is represented in this region in more or less abundance," 

 and he gives it as his opinion that zoologists have by no 

 means "become acquainted with even a small part of all 

 the interesting animals to be found." When we reflect 



