356 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1372 



predictive value of these equations is quite 

 independent of the assumptions upon which 

 they were originally based. 



This investigation of fundamental life 

 processes shows that they appear to obey the 

 laws of chemical dynamics. It illustrates a 

 method of attack which may tlu-ow some light 

 upon the underlying mechanism of these 

 processes and assist materially in the analy- 

 sis and control of life-phenomena. 



W. J. V. OSTERHOUT 



Harvard IJNrvERSiTT 



ISAO IIJIMA 



Professor Isao Iijima, head of the depart- 

 ment of zoology in the Imperial TJinversity, 

 died of ai)oplesy at his home in Tokyo on 

 March 14. His father, a Samurai of the 

 Daimyo Inouye of Shizuoka, was one of those 

 devoted to foreign learning in the decades 

 before the restoration: proceeding to Naga- 

 saki, he studied European ideas through the 

 medium of the Dutch language — later suffer- 

 ing imprisonment on account of these inter- 

 dicted Studies. The son Isao, horn Bunkyu- 

 ni-nen (1860), followed the father's footsteps, 

 was early a student of foreign languages and 

 science, and was eager to master physiology 

 and anatomy. So he found his way presently 

 to the Imperial University of Tokyo, which 

 then was beginning its famous career. Here 

 he came under the guidance of the American 

 zoologist. Professor Edward S. Morse, whose 

 inspiration soon turned him from medical 

 studies to pure science. Thereafter he went 

 to Leipsic, where he took his doctorate with 

 Professor Leuckart. Returning to Japan 

 about 1885, he was appointed a member of 

 the faculty of the Imperial University, where 

 he was to remain until the day of his death; 

 in the last years he was also professor in 

 zoology at the Nobles' College, Tokyo. Eor- 

 eign zoologists will always remember Iijima, 

 side by side with Kakichi Mitsukuri, as 

 taking foremost and genial place in all 

 zoological matters in Japan. His knowledge 

 of the general subject was unusually wide: 

 a fluent lecturer, an attractive personality, he 



popularized zoology and brought help to it 

 from many sides; for not only was he the 

 trained morphologist, but the old school nat- 

 uralist as well, bird expert notably, having 

 among his friends collectors and gunners in 

 all part of Japan; his hobby took him every- 

 where, and as a good shot he was as welcome 

 in the hunting parties of the Emperor as 

 with the pheasant-stalking peasants on the 

 hillside near Misaki — where for many years 

 he spent his summers. Here was the seaside 

 lalboratory of his zoological department, and 

 offshore were the great depths of Okinose 

 (6,000 meters) from which many a red-tur- 

 baned fisherman, and Kuma Aoki especially, 

 brought him tlie rarest of glass-sponges. 

 These Iijima made his life-long study: and 

 he dealt with them in memoirs which, pub- 

 lished in the main in the Journal of the 

 Science College, are classics, indeed — though 

 Iijima himself would be apt to add, in his 

 joking way, that this was not as great a feat 

 as it seemed, since he was the only life-long 

 specialist in the field! In point of fact, these 

 sponges were poorly represented throughout 

 the world (large museums had sometimes not 

 more than a few small specimens — usually a 

 ragged Hyalonema, or a defective Venus- 

 basket), till the discovery was made of many 

 species, genera, and even families of them in 

 lijima's district of the Pacific where nature 

 seemed to have taken many pains to keep 

 them alive in an early geological " garden." 

 In a practical direction lijima's studies 

 carried him to the culture of " artificial " 

 pearls, and several of his students, the late 

 Dr. Nishikawa especially, developed this in- 

 dustry with great success — having devised 

 new modes of causing the pearl oyster to 

 prod'uce hemispherical, more-than-hemispher- 

 ical, and in the latest time completely spher- 

 ical pearls. Bashfoed Dean 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



EX-SECRETARY MEREDITH ^N RESEARCH 



(From a, correspondent) 

 The organization of research is now re- 

 ceiving so much attention that the fear is ex- 



