under what difficulties tbe Jaj)anese physicians of the pre -Restoration 

 period sought for knowledge of the Western art of healing. Their 

 . zeal and industry, however, was uot^iniited to the study of Medicine : 

 they felt an almost equally great thirst for other Western sciences. 

 With the aid of what little knowledge they were able to acquire of 

 Dutch, which was then the only language of the West of which it was 

 possible to gain even a most elementary knowledge, they diligently 

 studied these other sciences with more or less success (see Chapter XII), 

 but always under extreme difficulties, because of the governmental 

 policy of seclusion. 



It well be seen even from these oursory observations that it was 

 not in a hard and barren soil, but in a soil well-prepared and fertile 

 that, with the Restoration, the seeds of the Western sciences were sown. 

 It will further be seen that this circumstance, combined with all the 

 facilities and encouragement given by the Meiji Government, enabled 

 those seeds to take root at once and grow to bear fruit within a 

 comparatively short time. 



In " Scientific Japan, Past and Present ", Chapters I-VII are 

 devoted to the Geographical, Meteorological, Geological, Botanical, 

 Zoological and Anthropological aspects of Japan, with the addition of 

 an account of the Great Earthquake of 1923, while Chapters VIII- 

 XIII treat of the History of those sciences that had special developments 

 in this country, including Seismology, which, although of a much 

 more recent origin, is a peculiary Japanese science, and Chapter XIV 

 — the concluding chapter — gives brief accounts of the more important 

 Scientific Institutions. 



In conclusion, I have, on behalf of the National Research Council 

 of Japan, much pleasure in tendering my sincerest thanks to those 

 scientists who have contributed valuable articles to this volume and 

 have thus made its publication possible. My special thanks are due 

 to Professor Shiujo, not only for writing the article signed by him, 

 but also for compiling the whole of Chapter XIV and, not least, for 

 the great pains he has taken as Editor-in-Chief in the general super- 

 vision of the work. 



Joji Sakurai. 

 Tokyo, October, 1926. 



