6i4 



NATURE 



\Oct. 28, 1880 



discussions on the ethnology of the Japanese, their 

 language and hterature. Sir Edward does not profess 

 to know all these subjects at first hand, but has, with 

 perhaps only one exception, chosen for his guidance the 

 most trustworthy authorities attainable. Sir Edward gives 

 several examples of what the Japanese language is 

 capable of in the way of poetry ; we have space for 

 only one specimen : — 



" Types of our children are the tiny grasses, 

 Tender and fr ile in the ample moorland : 

 We know n ■ to what fragrance their infant sprouts may 



blossom, 

 Nor wist to what sweetness their unborn fruits may ripen, 

 But hoping ever wait till autumn tells their story. 

 Oh ! cherished children, may ye never perish, 



riowerless, fruitless, in the early sprin/time, 

 Nor like this petal trampled by the wayside, 



Fall in the fuller promise of your prime. " 



A people that are capable of thinking and writing thus 

 ■deserve better than to be laughed at. 



Sir Edward Reed left Japan with the highest respect 

 for the people and their efforts to bring themselves abreast 

 of the civilisation of Europe and the United States, 

 and with a firm belief in the determination and earnest- 

 ness of the Emperor and his ministers. He evidently is 

 strongly of opinion that the new phase upon which Japan 

 has entered is no mere spurt which will collapse in a few 

 years, but a permanent change for the better in the direc- 

 tion of the civilisation of the country. That the result 

 will be a complete assimilation to European ways, as 

 some people seem to think and hope, is not to be 

 wished for and not in the nature of things to be ex- 

 pected. With all their admiration for the science and the 

 arts of Europe, the Japanese respect themselves suffi- 

 ciently to see that there is much in their old civilisation 

 that may well be retained. Indeed the problem is one of 

 the meeting of two forces. A new force from an entirely 

 different direction has struck in upon the course of the 

 old civilisation, with the result of a permanent change of 

 direction ; but that change cannot be entirely in the 

 direction of the new force. Nor will the final result be a 

 lapse back into the old ways ; even in the brief period 

 since the country was opened to European influence the 

 change has been so wide and deep that any such lapse is 

 inconceivable. Those who arc in the habit of decrying 

 the country tell us that the Japanese are everything by 

 turns and nothing long ; their upwards of 2,000 years of 

 gradual development in one direction, and their steady 

 continuance in the course entered upon about fifteen 

 years ago, belies the sneer, which probably owes its 

 origin to that official quarter whose contemptuous 

 treatment of the Japanese Government Sir Edward 

 Reed so strongly laments. We earnestly hope that the 

 Japanese will go on during the next fifteen years as they 

 have done in the past, and by that time the current in 

 the new channel will be so broad and powerful that it 

 will require a force of ccjual power to seriously change its 

 direction, and we do not know where that is to come 

 from. The problem in national development being 

 worked out by the Japanese is of the highest possible 

 interest, and what is its real nature cannot be better 

 learned than from the two valuable volumes which so 

 busy a man as Sir Edward Reed has found time to put 

 together.^ 



NOTES 



The foundation-stone of the new museum of McGiU College 

 Montreal, to which we referred some time ago, was laid on 

 September 21 by the Marquis of Lome. Principal Dawson in 

 thanking Mr. Redpath, the donor, for his generous gift, stated 

 that the museum would be not merely a place for the exhibition 



» For the illustrations in this article we are indebted to the courtesy of 

 Mr. Murray. 



of specimens, but a teaching instrument and a laboratory of 

 original research ; a great natural science department of the 

 Univer.sity, in which the classes in geology and biology would 

 receive their instntction, original workers would be trained in 

 all departments of natural science, and from which would go 

 forth the men — and, he trusted, the women also — best fitted to 

 bring to \\£a\. the hidden treasures of the Dominion, and to avert 

 by the aid of science the injuries with which any of its industries 

 might be threatened. Dr. Dawson referred to other noble 

 examples of private local or national liberality on the American 

 continent, besides those of which Montreal can boast — to "the 

 great National Museum at Washington, %\ hichj is intended to 

 rival, and if possible surpass, the British Museum ; the Central 

 Park Museum of New York, on which that great city has 

 lavished vast sums of money ; the Zoological Museum of Harvard, 

 whose revenues would suffice to s upport some entire [univer- 

 sities in this country ; or the foundations of Mr. Peabody, 

 which have established great museums in several American 

 cities." And he hoped that this latest gift to Montreal would 

 stimulate other benefactions, especially for their Faculty of 

 Applied Science, so that the physical apparatus and class-rooms 

 of the University might be as well provided for as their natm'al 

 science collections. 



Mr. Merrifield, F.R.S., the retiring president, proposes at 

 the annual meeting of the London Mathematical Society on 

 November II, to cast his valedictory address into the form of 

 " Considerations respecting the Translation of Series of Obser- 

 vations into Continuous Formulce." The following is the pro- 

 posed new Council: — Mr. S. Roberts, F.R.S., president; Dr. 

 Hirst, F.R.S., and Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S., vice-presi- 

 dents ; Mr. C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S., treasurer; Messrs. M. 

 Jenkins and R. Tucker, honorary secretaries ; other members. 

 Prof. Cayley, F.R.S., Mr. H. Hart, Prof. Henrici, F.R.S., 

 Dr. Plopkiuson, F.R.S., Mr. A. B. Kempe, Mr. R. F. Scott, 

 Prof. H. J. S. Smith, F.R.S., Messrs. Lloyd Tanner, H. M. 

 Taylor, and J. J. Walker. 



We take the following fron the New York " Monthly Index 

 to Current Periodical Literature," &c. : — " The new Warner 

 Oljservatory which is being erected at Rochester, N.Y., is 

 attracting much attention in social and literary as well as scien- 

 tific circles. The new telescope will be twenty-two feet in 

 length, and its lens sixteen inches in diameter, thus making it 

 third in size of any instrument heretofore manufactured, while 

 the dome of the Observatory is to have some new appliances for 

 specially observing certain portions of the heavens. It is to be 

 the finest private observatory in the world, and has been heavily 

 endowed by Mr. H. H. Warner. Prof. Swift has laboured 

 under numerous disadvantages in the past, and the new comet 

 which he recently found was in spite of many obstacles ; but as 

 the new institution is to be specially devoted to discoveries, there 

 are good reasons to expect very many scientific revelations in the 

 near future from the Warner Observatory at Rochester." 



The Times has shown considerable pluck in having erected at 

 its office one of Mr. Jordan's glycerine barometers, described in 

 Nature, vol. xxi. p. 377. In the issue of the 25th inst. and 

 following days are published the readings of this gigantic 

 barometer at intervals of two hours from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. 

 This will be continued regularly, a second edition of the paper 

 giving the two-hourly readings from midnight to noon. These 

 daily records with a barometer on such an enormous scale will 

 be of the greatest value. The Times rightly states that it seems 

 unquestionable that an instrument of this kind is admirably 

 suited for practical use at meteorological stations, at seaports, in 

 collieries, and in all other situations where it is of importance 

 for the unpractised eye to notice frequently and easily the changes 

 taking place in atmospheric pressure. 



