May 5, 1881] 



NATURE 



benefit from carrying on work which brought them into 

 daily contact with Europeans. Viewed, therefore, merely 

 in the light of an educational establishment, this depart- 

 ment has been of much benefit to the Government by sup- 

 plying so many intelligent and well-informed officials, all 

 more or less imbued with favourable notions respecting 

 foreigners and a desire to see foreign intercourse 

 extended. 



The history of Mr. Ka Pu-wei, who has for several 

 years worked in connection with this department, is almost 

 as remarkable as that of Messrs. Hsii and Hwa. From 

 his childhood he had a strong leaning to mathematical 

 studies ; but not being in independent circumstances, he 

 was obliged to support himself by keeping a rice-shop 

 inside the city of Shanghai. Here he prosecuted his 

 studies with such success that he was able to calculate 

 eclipses and to prepare an almanac giving particulars 

 respecting the movements of the heavenly bodies, which 

 he ventured to publish. The Government alone having 

 the authority to publish almanacs, and the country being 

 at the time unsettled by the Taiping rebellion, he was 

 charged with having designs against the Imperial throne, 

 and cast into prison. He narrowly escaped with his life, 

 but suffered imprisonment for above a year, till his friends 

 could procure his release. He is now chiefly engaged in 

 compiling and publishing a nautical almanac, calculated 

 for the longitude of Shanghai instead of Peking or 

 Greenwich, and in preparing various books of mathe- 

 matical tables, for all of which his past studies have been 

 an e.xcellent means of preparation. 



Equally interesting is the history of Mr. Li Shan-Ian, 

 who was for a short time connected with the Translation 

 Department before his removal to Peking, as Professor of 

 Mathematics in the University of that city. He is a 

 native of the Province of Chekiang, and from his earliest 

 years manifested a remarkable genius for the science of 

 numbers. In the year 1845 he began to publish original 

 treatises embracing different problems in the higher 

 mathematics. On one occasion when at Shanghai he 

 went to a chapel where Dr. Medhurst was preaching 

 to a Chinese congregation, and showed him one of 

 these works. This resulted in his being engaged in 

 the London Mission, where Mr. Wylie took him in 

 hand and translated with him several mathematical 

 works of the highest order, as well as Hersohel's 

 " Outlines of Astronomy." With Dr. Edkins he trans- 

 lated Whewell's "Mechanics." Nothing in the way of 

 science seemed to come amiss to him. Eventually he 

 commenced Newton's "Principia" with Mr. Wylie, of which 

 he only translated a small portion of the first book. The 

 remainder of the first book he finished at the Kiangnan 

 Arsenal with Mr. Fryer during the few months of his 

 connection with the Translation Department. He 

 seemed to enter into the most intricate of its problems 

 with the greatest zest and enthusiasm, and often e.xpressed 

 his intense admiration for Newton's genius. His skill in 

 solving the most difficult mathematical questions that 

 could be givea him was truly remarkable. Of course 

 there are not many men of his calibre to be found in 

 China ; but still no doubt others will be brought to light 

 through the impulse which foreign intercourse is bringing 

 to bear upon the stagnant minds of this long-isolated 

 nation. Now and then a lesser light than Li Shan-Ian 

 appears among the various visitors at the Arsenal, 

 and it is reported that Ku Shang-chih, a native of 

 Chiu-shan, is in advance of him ; but this needs 

 confirmation. 



The estabhshment where the books are printed in the 

 old-fashioned way from wooden blocks was first merely 

 a small room, but has now grown into a separate range 

 of buildings, and employs upwards of thirty hands as 

 block-cutters, printers, bookbinders, &c., and is superin- 

 tended by an under-official. Another under-official has 

 charge of the books when printed, and is responsible for 



the money derived from their sale. About half-a-dozen 



copyists complete the pcrsoiuii:! of the department. 



The library of foreign books consists now of several 

 hundred volumes, and forms probably the best collection 

 of the kind in China. It is contemplated to make exten- 

 sive additions shortly of recent important publications. 



It may be mentioned that, as a mark of Imperial favour, 

 various honorary degrees of rank have been conferred 

 upon the native and foreign members of the Translation 

 Department, in acknowledgment of the value of their 

 services. Mr. Fryer, Dr. Kreyer, and Dr. Allen received 

 diplomas entitling them to the third, fourth, and fifth 

 degrees of civil rank respectively. 



On various occasions some of the highest officials in 

 the Empire have sent requests for books to be translated, 

 bearing on subjects in which they took particular interest. 

 Notably this has been the case with H. E. Li Hung-chang. 

 Among the high dignitaries who have expressed their 

 satisfaction at the results attained by this department, it 

 may be mentioned that on one occasion, when staying at 

 the Arsenal, H. E. Ting Jih-chang expressed himself in 

 strong language as to the importance which he attached 

 to the translation of books, compared with the work 

 carried on in other departments. The Marquis Tseng, 

 who resided for a few days at the Arsenal in 1S77, and 

 has from the first been in favour of the undertaking, gave 

 Mr. Fryer a Chinese fan, on which he had written by way 

 of compliment a verse of Chinese poetry of his own 

 composition, and which may be freely translated as 

 follows : — 



" Nine years have elapsed since our last conversation ; 

 But your translations have been forwarded to me from time 



to time. 

 May your fame surpass that of Verliiest and Scbaal, 

 As the electric light exceeds the spark of the glowworm." 

 ( To be continued.) 



THE GREAT VIENNA TELESCOPE 



THE political and social disturbances in Ireland have 

 of late somewhat diverted attention from the literary 

 and scientific work done in that country. Such work has 

 nevertheless proceeded on its quiet way despite land 

 agitation, failure of crops, or even commercial distress ; 

 and Ireland is to be congratulated on the completion of 

 the fine 27-inch refracting telescope, designed and con- 



structed by Mr. Howard Grubb of Dublin for the 

 Imperial and Royal Observatory of Vienna. 



This telescope is the largest equatorial refractor at 

 present in existence. In the year 1S73 Director Littrow, 

 of the National Observatory of Vienna, induced the then 

 Austrian Minister of Public Construction (R. von Stro- 

 mayer) to consent to the removal of the Observatory 

 from the old site in the Vienna University grounds to a 

 more favourable site, consisting of a level piece of ground 



