Sept. 6, 1 888 J 



NATURE 



435 



It is a common mistake that Catholic missionaries are 

 engaged in proselytizing, and in proselytizing only. Un- 

 doubtedly the original motive has been to convert pagan 

 nations to Christianity ; but, as will be shown, they have 

 worked in other channels with very great success. 

 Accounts of scientific work like that of the writer are not 

 common, because the missionaries are so few that they 

 have very little time to devote to anything outside their 

 religious duties. The advantages of missionaries preceding 

 the ordinary travellers are well known, and have been 

 recognized by various learned Societies. It is, however, 

 of Eastern Asia in particular of which M. David pro- 

 poses to treat—that is, of China, which contains a third 

 part of the population of the earth, and which is attracting 

 more and more attention every day. The enemies of the 

 Catholic clergy compare the present missionaries in China 

 very unfavourably with the Jesuits who shone at Pekin in 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is undoubted 

 that the Jesuit fathers of Pekin bore an exceedingly high 

 reputation in science and art, and that they produced 

 very considerable results in almost every branch of 

 human knowledge. They completed the most colossal 

 geographical work that has ever yet been seen, by 

 making a complete chart of the Chinese Empire. The 

 " Lettres Ediliantes," the "'Memoires des Missionaires 

 Je'suites de Pekin,'" the great works of Father Duhalde 

 and of Father de Madia show the immense mass of ! 

 matter they have written upon almost every subject 

 relating to the Chinese Empire. But, it is asked, why 

 speak of the great achievements of the past ? They only 

 accentuate the total absence of any scientific labours at the 

 present time in China. M. David has several answers to 

 this question, (i) Formerly the Academies and learned 

 Societies of Europe could communicate only with the 

 missionaries on questions relating to China ; no other 

 travellers had then found their way into the Celestial 

 Empire ; and it was to aid this communication that the 

 Catholic kings helped the missionaries with their protec- 

 tion and their money, as well as from religious motives. 

 (2) The missionaries knew that they were compelled, in 

 order to get permission to remain in China, to make their 

 services indispensable to the emperor ; and thus they put 

 all their knowledge and skill at his service. (3) Whilst 

 only a small number of missionaries thus resided 

 at Pekin, and gained and kept the confidence of the 

 emperor by their pursuit of astronomy, geography, 

 and the arts, the rest, by the favour in which their 

 brethren stood, got permission to preach throughout 

 China. 



St. Francis Xavier, the apostle of India, died without 

 being able to enter China. Father Ricci, who entered it 

 in 1580, led to Pekin quite a phalanx of eminent men, to 

 occupy the posts of honour near the emperor. These 

 high positions did not, however, prevent the missionaries 

 from labouring in the cause of Christianity, and founding 

 many Christian establishments. Amongst them were the 

 Fathers Verbiest, Schall, de Premare, Gaubel, Amyot, 

 and many others. The suppression of the Jesuit order 

 stopped their work in China, and the Lazarists, who were 

 sent to succeed them, and who had in their ranks men 

 like MM. Raux, Ghislain, Hanna, and Lamiot, were 

 themselves soon swept away by a revolution. The 

 persecution soon became general in China, and some 

 priests who were able to elude the edicts and remain in 

 the country at the cost, very often, of their lives, were fully 

 occupied without attending to scientific studies. The 

 same was the case with their immediate successors, who 

 were sent by various Societies to collect and stiengthen 

 the scattered congregations. Afterwards when the Anglo- 

 French expedition procured freedom of conscience for the 

 Christians and liberty for the missionaries to remain in 

 China, things were very different from what they had been 

 under the Emperors Kang-hi and Kien-lung. The thread 

 of the scientific labours of the old fathers at Pekin could 



not be picked up. For, on the one hand, China was now 

 in communication with the rest of the world, and had not 

 the need nor the desire to have recourse to the missions 

 for their learned and scientific men ; and, on the other 

 hand, the Christian missionaries and their flocks now 

 enjoyed toleration, and the priests had nothing to gain 

 by imitating their great predecessors in gaining the 

 favour of the emperor. Besides, European diplomatists 

 did not look with a favourable eye on the influence that 

 would be acquired by priests over the emperor if they 

 accepted official posts. The Jesuit fathers, however, who 

 had returned to China when their suppression had been 

 annulled, did not completely separate themselves from 

 their former studies, but continued them as far as their 

 changed condition would allow. For example, in their 

 college of Zikawei, near Shanghai, they succeeded in 

 establishing a very important meteorological observatory, 

 whence Father Dechevrens regularly sends his observa- 

 tions to the men of science all over the world ; natural 

 history owes much to the persevering labours of Father 

 Heude, who has published a work on the " Mollusques 

 fluviatiles et terrestres" of Central China, and others on 

 the stags and tortoises of China. The able draughtsman, 

 Father Rhatouis, helped Father Heude by drawing the 

 excellent illustrations of these books, some of which were 

 printed in the Jesuit establishment in China. In other 

 parts of the country, many of these missionaries give 

 themselves up to forming and sending to our Museums 

 collections of plants and animals. At Kwei-chow, Abbe 

 Perny, of the Foreign Missions, put together a very 

 interesting collection of plants, which, with other articles 

 of value, he has presented to the Jardin des Plantes. He 

 introduced into France the great silk-worm that bears his 

 name {Attacus pernyi), and which already is reared in the 

 open air on the oak-trees of the more temperate regions 

 of France. On his return from China, Abbe Perny pub- 

 lished a Chinese grammar and vocabulary, and many 

 works on the productions of the Far East. From Tibet, 

 Mgr. Chauveau and his successor, Mgr. Biet, and above 

 all M. Desgodins, have sent to Europe many precious 

 documents and several collections of animals, which give 

 us an idea of the physical condition of that almost im- 

 penetrable region. M. Furet in Japan, M. Larnaudie in 

 Siam, M. Pourthie in Corea, and M. Bon in Tonquin, and 

 several others, have all in the respective countries of their 

 adoption studied the geography and the natural history,, 

 and have sent their scientific collections to enrich our public 

 and private establishments. At Yun-nan, M. Delavay, of 

 the Foreign Missions, has given up for many years all his 

 available time to the study of the plants of this unexplored 

 province with the most remarkable zeal and success. The 

 plants which he has already sent to the French Museum 

 are the most important that have ever been sent from 

 China to Europe, and botanists are surprised at the 

 number of new species they contain. An account of these 

 new species has been prepared by M. Frauchet, and will 

 shortly be published in a big octavo volume. M. David 

 prides himself on being the cause of M. Delavay following 

 these botanical pursuits which have so enriched science. 

 They met accidentally at Hong-Kong, and after some 

 trouble M. David succeeded in inducing him to become a 

 correspondent of the Jardin des Plantes. The Professors 

 of that establishment have been so satisfied with the 

 labours of M. Delavay that they have sent him one- of 

 their decorations with several money grants to help him 

 to continue his fruitful researches. A few facts will show 

 the value of the labours of this gentleman. Formerly only 

 four or five Chinese representatives of the class Rhododi n- 

 dran were known, but the new species found by M. 

 Delavay, added to those found by M. David at 

 Moupinn, amount to forty-five. So, only one Chinese 

 primrose was known, but now more than thirty new 

 pecies have been classified by M. Delavay. Other mis- 

 sionaries besides those of China are actively engaged in 



