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PREFACE "^^ 



For several years, the idea of putting together in book form 

 something of the past history and present state of science in Japan 

 has been in the minds of not a few of her scientists, and the Meeting 

 of the Third Pan-Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo this autumn has 

 served as a stimulus for this idea to take definite shape in " Scientific 

 Japan, Past and Present ". 



Assertion is often made that science in Japan dates back only as 

 far as the time of the Restoration (1868). It is true that a systematic 

 transplantation of Western sciences took place after the Restoration, 

 but it is equally true that several branches of science had been studied 

 in this country with zeal and success for centuries before that date. 



Among these, special mention must be made of Mathematics, 

 which was already developed to an astonishing degree during the latter 

 half of the 17th century. Seki, born in 1642, the same year as 

 Newton, was a man of extraordinary mathematical ability and origi- 

 nality, and his discovery of the " Principle of the Circle " is held by 

 some as comparable with the discovery of Infinitesimal Calculus by 

 Newton and Leibnitz. It is worthy of remark in this connection that 

 the Mathematics Outlivated by Seki and his school neither had a 

 foreign origin nor did it in its later development receive any assistance 

 from outside sources. Astronomy was another subject which was 

 studied from an early period, chiefly in connection with the compilation 

 of almanacs, and, in 1744, an Astronomical Observatory equipped 

 with meridian and other instruments was established at Kanda in 

 Yedo, as Tokyo was then called. The study of Botany as a liandmaid 

 of Medicine n)ay be traced back even to the 8th century, although it 

 was not until the middle of the 17th century that its independent 

 study began. 



Medicine occupies the most important position in the pre-Restora- 

 tion history of science in Japan, not only because it was the first of 

 Western sciences to penetrate into this country, but also because it 

 paved the way for the importation of other Western sciences. In 

 Chapter XI, Dr. Fujikawa tells us with what zeal and industry and 



