28 



NA TURE 



[November 13, 1902 



It seems, for example, hopeless to attempt to under- 

 stand what is meant (p. 86) by the fixity of the sun 

 relative to the earth, which we are told would result from 

 the attraction between the sun and the earth losing its 

 reciprocal character. And the explanation (p. 134) of 

 the mechanical equivalent of heat by the example of the 

 coal consumption required for working an elevating 

 machine, as compared with that required for raising the 

 temperature of water, is not a happy one, even with the 

 addition of a parenthetical reference to unavoidable 

 losses. 



The author thinks that there has been too great a 

 tendency among the writers of treatises on dynamics to 

 deal with the subject as a merely abstract science, with 

 but little reference to the basis supplied by the observed 

 motions of actual bodies. But he omits to notice what 

 has perhaps been the most unsatisfactory feature of such 

 treatises, namely, their frequent neglect to deal with the 

 question of the establishment of a base relative to which 

 to measure motions for the purpose of the laws of motion, 

 obscurity thus arising with regard to a fundamental point. 

 Indeed, the book before us affords as good examples as 

 could be found of obscurity due to an attempt to con- 

 struct statements dealing with the motion of actual bodies 

 without clear specification of the base employed. 



In the treatment of dynamics as an abstract science, a 

 base may be assumed at the outset, without any reference 

 to the question whether or how such a thing can actually 

 be identified in nature ; but so long as this question is 

 postponed, any comparisons with actual motions are apt 

 to be inaccurate or puzzling. Newton's adoption of the 

 postulate of an "absolute motion," as he called it, stands 

 in the forefront of his statement of the theory. He ex- 

 pounded what he meant by absolute motion sufficiently 

 for his purpose, and for a time his followers were content 

 to accept his statement. But a stumbling block was found 

 in the use of the word " absolute," and this word fell into 

 disuse without any more appropriate terminology taking 

 its place, and thereupon the point in question, instead of 

 taking the first place in any statement of the theory, fell 

 so much into the background as to be in danger of being 

 overlooked altogether. The fact remains that the so- 

 called laws of motion apply only to motions relative to a 

 suitably chosen base, one which is probably connected 

 with other phenomena of physics, but may naturally, 

 and must in the first instance, be regarded merely 

 as a creature of the theory, with no right to a title 

 involving such words as "absolute" or "fixed." 



THE DISCOVERY OF JAPAN. 

 Geschichte a'cs Christentums in Japan. Von Pfarrer 

 Hans Haas. I. Erste Einfuhrung des Christentums 

 in Japan durch Franz Xavier. (Tokyo, 1902.) 

 T N this large octavo volume of 300 pages, admirably 

 -L printed at the Rikkyo Gakuin Press, we have the 

 first instalment of what promises to be as full and 

 accurate an account of the discovery of Japan and of the 

 rise, course and downfall of Christianity in that country 

 during the sixteenth and following centuries as the 

 accessible materials render possible. A distinguishing 

 feature is the extent to which native sources of inform- 

 NO. 1724, VOL. 67] 



ation have been consulted, and though these are neither 

 ample nor very trustworthy, their use lends an interest 

 and an authority to the work which are lacking to the 

 results of previous efforts to present the subject to 

 European readers. 



The first notice of Japan was brought to the west by 

 Ser Marco Polo. In a passage pregnant with conse- 

 quences to East and West, he, or his literary friend to 

 his dictation, writes : — 



"Zipangu (Jihpenkwo anglice Jippunkwo, i.e. Orient 

 Land) is an island in the high seas lying eastward [of 

 China] .... it is of great extent .... the inhabitants 

 . . . . are idolaters and independent. And I can tell 

 you that the quantity of gold they possess is inexhaustible 

 . . . . the exportation is forbidden .... hence they 

 have an immeasurable surplus of gold." 



It is not too much to say that the Venetian traveller's 

 words, scouted in his own day, led to the discovery of 

 America, and to the discovery and temporary Christianis- 

 ation of Japan. Marco Polo's travels were printed in 

 1477. What he wrote about "Zipangu" came to the 

 ears of Columbus through Toscanelli, and in 1492 the 

 great navigator sailed westwards to discover the great 

 eastern island about which his contemporaries thought 

 him "extravagant and clean possessed." It was his 

 Ophir, and such he held it to be to the end of his days. 

 Vet the wealth of Japan was a mere fable — even in 1SS7 

 its production of gold did not surpass some 500 kilos. 

 It was thus a delusion that led to the discovery of 

 America, or rather prepared the way for that discovery 

 of the Pacific Ocean which proved America not to be a 

 portion of Eastern Asia. 



For the discovery of Japan the world had to wait 

 another half-century. It was not the result of design, 

 but indirectly of the division of the undiscovered world 

 by Pope Alexander VI., in 1493, between Spain and 

 Portugal, in return for their armed support of the Roman 

 system — probably the biggest deal the world has seen — 

 and directly of the shipwreck, in 1543. of a Chinese 

 piratical junk having three Portuguese deserters on 

 board on the shores of the island of Tanegashima, lying 

 south of the southernmost point of the island empire. 

 As early as 1508, as Mr. Donald Ferguson has recently 

 shown in his interesting " Letters from Portuguese 

 Captives in Canton, 1534-6," Lopes de Sequeira had been 

 ordered to inquire after the Chijns (Chinese), and in 1 5 17 

 definite commercial relations were established with 

 Canton. Galvano and Xavier both mention the discovery, 

 but the various accounts, including the Japanese, differ 

 as to time and locality. Nevertheless, it is pretty certain 

 that it took place as above stated, and to this day in 

 Japan " Tanegashima " means a gun or pistol. 



But in his famous Peregrinacao, Fernao Mendez Pinto 

 lays claim to the discovery as his own — through the mis- 

 chance also of the Chinese junk, on which he was taking 

 a passage from " Sanchan " to "Lailo" with two com- 

 panions, being driven by stress of weather to seek shelter 

 off the same island of Tanegashima. Pinto was dubbed 

 by Cervantes the Prince of Braggarts, and our own 

 Congreve uses him as a type wherewith to compare a 

 " liar of the first magnitude." A letter of his own and 

 others of his brethren of the Society of Jesus in which 

 we should expect to find some reference to this exploit 



