December 15, 1904] 



NATURE 



151 



directed to the attainment of national objects by men whose 

 individual powers have been trained to matte effective use 

 of western science, and the results have been simply 

 wonderful. 



These results have been most apparent in the operations 

 of war. It was the sound of the cannon on the Yalu River, 

 in the war with China ten years ago, which awoke Europe 

 and America to a knowledge of the fact that a new nation 

 had been born in the Far East, and which at the same time 

 started many of the political problems which have led up 

 to the present war with Russia. That war, whatever its 

 ultimate results may be, has shown that the Japanese have 

 not only been able to take full advantage of the applications 

 of western science, but that they have been animated by 

 the spirit of old Japan, which has made them regardless 

 of personal sacrifices. The Army and Navy have been 

 organised and worked on scientific methods, and with a 

 completeness of arrangements which has won for them the 

 admiration of all impartial critics. Their intense patriotism 

 has caused them to perform deeds of daring which are 

 unequalled in the history of war, while their skill in strategy 

 and in the applications of the latest scientific methods to 

 all they have done has made them almost uniformly 

 successful in their operations. They have demonstrated the 

 importance of the work of the engineer. The railways 

 which have been built in Japan have been fully utilised to 

 convey men and materials, and the ships to transport them 

 oversea. The telegraphs have been used to communicate 

 instructions and to keep the authorities informed regarding 

 movements and requirements. The dockyards and ship- 

 building yards have been ready to undertake repairs, and 

 the arsenals and machine shops to turn out war material 

 of all kinds, as well as appliances which aid operations in 

 the field. Light railways have been laid down on the way 

 to battlefields, and wireless telegraphy and telephones to 

 convey instructions to soldiers ; in short, all the latest appli- 

 cations of mechanical, electrical, and chemical science have 

 been freely and intelligently employed. 



The ships of the Japanese Navy are probably the best 

 illustrations of the Japanese methods of procedure. In naval 

 matters they accepted all the guidance the western world 

 could give them, but at the same time they struck out a 

 line of their own, and the fleet which they have created is 

 unique in the character of its units. British designs have 

 in many respects been improved upon, with the result that 

 they have obtained in their latest ships many features which 

 have won the admiration of the naval world. The inven- 

 tions and improvements which have been made by Japanese 

 . officers, engineers, and scientific men disprove the charge 

 which is very often made, that the Japanese have no 

 originality. Even in the matter of pure science Japanese 

 investigators have shown that they are able to take their 

 places among those who have extended the borders of 

 knowledge. The memoirs and papers published by Japanese 

 students and teachers, both on scientific and literary sub- 

 jects, will bear very favourable comparison with those of 

 any other country, and while no Japanese Newton, Darwin, 

 or Kelvin has yet arisen, there are men connected with 

 Japanese universities and colleges of whom any learned 

 institution in the world would have no reason to be ashamed. 

 1 must refer to my book for details of the developments 

 which have taken place in engineering and industry. 

 Suffice it to say that roads and rivers have been improved, 

 railways to the extent of between four and five thousand 

 miles have been constructed, a large mercantile marine has 

 been created, docks and harbours have been made, tele- 

 graphs and telephones are in use all over the country, excel- 

 lent postal arrangements are in operation, and there are 

 few departments of mechanical and chemical industry in 

 which there are not manv establishments doing very 

 efficient work. The result of it all has been that commerce 

 has been immensely extended, and the financial resources 

 of the country developed in such a manner as to enable 

 Japan to take her place among the powerful nations of the 

 world. 



At the root of all these developments has been the very 

 complete system of education which has been established 

 in the country. Elementary schools are to be found in every 

 district, and secondary and technical schools in populous 

 centres, while the universities of Tokyo and Kyoto supply the 

 highest training required for the national life ; but for de- 



NO. 1833, VOL. 71] 



tails of these I must again refer to my book. The motive 

 underlying all the efforts is what I wish chiefly to emphasise. 

 .Shortly after the Emperor succeeded to the throne, he issued 

 a proclamation which contained the following sentence ; — 

 " Knowledge and learning shall be sought after through- 

 out the whole world, in order that the status of the Empire 

 of Japan may be raised ever higher and higher." The 

 recent history of Japan is the most striking illustration of 

 the influence of a wisely directed system of education on 

 national affairs when those who are responsible for it are 

 infused with high national ideals. 



At the same time it should be noted that some of the 

 most thoughtful and influential men in Japan doubt whether 

 the ofiicial system of education is likely to lead to the best 

 results. They feel, like Matthew Arnold, that too often the 

 machinery and organisation receive more attention than the 

 real education, and, moreover, they dislilie the idea of all 

 educational institutions being of the same type. Probably 

 the most influential educationist in Japan was Yukichi 

 Fukuzawa, and he never failed to point out the possible 

 evils which are likely to arise from a too strictly official 

 routine. His own college, the Keio Gijuku, has been a 

 great school for statesmen, lawyers, and public men, and 

 many of the leading men in Japan have been his pupils. 

 Count Okuma, the distinguished statesman, has also estab- 

 lished what is essentially a private university, and there are 

 many other schools of different kinds, all of which supple- 

 ment the Government institutions. Even in the technical 

 and professional establishments, however, attention is not 

 confined to the subjects required for strictly utilitarian pur- 

 poses or for examinations ; the first object is to train men 

 who will be able to serve their country, in the fullest sense 

 of that term. Many discussions are now being carried on 

 with regard to the future of education in Japan, and the 

 general tendency of these was indicated a short time ago 

 by a distinguished Japanese author when he said, " No 

 system of education which is not based on sociological con- 

 ditions can be thoroughly successful, and therefore a study 

 of ethnology, sociology, and of evolution generally is abso- 

 lutely essential to a thorough understanding of the 

 educational questions awaiting solution." The Japanese 

 are now face to face with many problems which confront 

 all industrial nations, and it is to be hoped that, having 

 organised their education generally, and in some respects 

 given an example to western nations, they will go a step 

 further and show that it is possible to combine industrial 

 development with the welfare of all classes of the com- 

 munity. 



The chief lessons which the British Science Guild has to 

 learn from Japan is that if it is to be of any real influence 

 in the life of the Empire, the term science must be used in 

 its broad sense, as including all knowledge required for 

 individual and collective life, and that all efforts must be 

 guided by a consciousness of the real amis of national life. 



Glasgow, December 6. Henry Dyer. 



The Heating Effect of the 7 Rays from Radium. 



In a recent communication to the Physikalische Zeit- 

 schrift (No. 18, September) Paschen has described some 

 experiments which indicate that the 7 rays from radium 

 supply a large proportion of the total heat emission. It 

 is known that the heating effect of radium when surrounded 

 by an envelope of sufticient thickness to absorb both the 

 a and /3 ravs is about 100 gram calories per hour per gram. 

 Paschen, however, found that if the radium was surrounded 

 by a sufficient amount of lead to absorb completely the 

 7 rays the heating effect was increased 226 times. This 

 large heating effect of the 7 rays was so unexpected, and 

 of such great importance in connection with the nature 

 of these rays, that we decided to verify this result by an 

 independent method. In Paschen 's experiments, the heat- 

 ing effect was determined in a special Bunsen ice calori- 

 meter, in the central tube of which the radium, surrounded 

 by a lead cylinder about 4 cm. in diameter, was placed. 

 In order to correct for the natural melting of the ice 

 mantle a differential method was employed. In our ex- 

 periments we decided to use a differential air calorimeter, 

 similar to the one described in our previous work on the 

 heating effect of radium and its emanation {Phil. Mag., 

 February). In each flask of the differential air calorimeter 



