September 26, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



177 



riod of almost ten years. For these reasons, when he was leaving 

 Japan, he was decorated with the third order of the Rising Sun, 

 and was also appointed honorary head professor of the engineering 

 college. 



In 1882 the art school was discontinued. In 1885 the Depart- 

 ment of Public Works was abolished,— an event which caused the 

 college to be transferred to the control of the department of edu- 

 cation. 



In the late Tokyo Daigaku and Kobu Daigakko, the following 

 degrees were conferred on the graduates by theii- respective au- 

 thorities: Hogakiishi in the department of law, Rigakushi in sci- 

 ence, Igakushi in medicine, Biingakushi in literature, and Koga- 

 hushi in engineering. 



On the 1st of March, 1886, the Imperial Ordinance No. 3 was 

 promulgated for the organization of the Teikoku Daigaku, or Im- 

 perial University, and the Tokyo Daigaku and Kobu Daigakko 

 were merged in the new institution. H. E. Hiromoto Watanabe, 

 then the governor of Tokyo, was appointed president of the uni- 

 versity. In April, curricula of instruction for the several colleges 

 of the university were established. Each course extends over 

 three years, excepting the course in medicine, which extends over 

 four years. In the same month the Tokyo Shokko Gakko (School 

 of Industrial Technology) was placed under the control of the 

 university. In November the five principal private law schools in 

 the city wei-e placed under the supervision of the university. A 

 superiising committee for these schools was formed among the 

 professors of the College of Law, who became responsible for the 

 courses of instruction and the method of examining the students. 

 In December of the same year a marine zoological station 

 was established at Misaki, a town situated at Cape Miura, in 



In May, 1887, the Imperial Ordinance No. 13 was promulgated, 

 establishing regulations for learned degrees; and in June of the 

 same year by-laws connected with these regulations were issued 

 by the minister of slate for education. In July it was decided 

 that graduates of the colleges should be entitled to call themselves 

 Hogakiishi. Igakushi (Yakiigakiishi in the case of graduates in 

 the course of pharmacy), Kogakushi, Bungakushi, and Rigakiishi 

 respectively, according to the course which they had pursued; 

 and that Jim-igakushi of the Tokyo Daigaku, and graduates of 

 the Kobu Daigakko who had not received degrees, should be 

 allowed to call themselves Igakushi and Kogakushi respectively, 

 after obtaining the sanction of the president of the university, to 

 whom a formal application must be made, and a history given at 

 length of their professional career after graduation. 



In October the Tokyo Shokko Gakko was separated from the 

 university. In March. 1888, the powers and duties of the presi- 

 dent of the university were formally fixed by the minister of 

 state for education. In the same month a notification was issued 

 by the education department, regulating the income, from tuition 

 fees and various other sources, of all educational institutions un- 

 der the direct control of the department, with the object of sup- 

 plying each with a capital fund. In May the university was 

 released from the duty of supervising the five principal private 

 law schools in Tokyo. 



The Tokyo Observatory was established at ligura in the month 

 of June. This institution, formed by the amalgamation with the 

 University Observatory, of the Astronomical Section of the Home 

 Department and the Astronomical Observatory of the Imperial 

 Navy, was placed trader the control of the Imperial University, 

 which was accoidingly intrusted with the duty of publishing the 

 Astronomical .Almanac. 



On July 3 1 the College of Engineering was moved to the new 

 brick building just completed for its use in the compound at 

 Hongo. On the 30th of October of the same year a temporary 

 committee for the compilation of the national history was estab- 

 lished. This was due to the disestablishment of the temporary 

 boai-d for the compilation of the national history in the Naikaku, 

 and to the subsequent intrusting of the vrork to tbe Imperial Uni- 

 versity. On tbe 20th of December of the same year the College 

 of Science was removed to the new building then completed. 



The Imperial University is under the control of the minister of 

 state for education, and depends for its revenue upon annual 



allowances from the treasury of the Imperial Government. The 

 tuition fees and other sources of income are allowed to accumulate 

 year by year, so as to form a large fund. A certain portion of 

 this fund is, however, to be paid out in some cases towards the 

 current expenditure of the university, when the cases are of such 

 a nature as to demand the outlay. 



The whole university— viz., the offices of the university, the 

 university library, the colleges of la^v, medicine, engineering, 

 literature, and science, the First Hospital of the College of Medi- 

 cine, and the dormitories of the colleges — is situated in the exten- 

 sive grounds at Motofujicho, Hongo, Tokyo, known as Kaga- 

 yashiki. The Botanic Garden is located at Koishikawa, the 

 Tokyo Observatory belonging to the university at ligura, and the 

 Second Hospital of the Medical College at Shitaya, all within the 

 city limits. The Marine Biological Station of the university is 

 situated at Misaki, a town on the north side of the entrance to the 

 Bay of Tokyo. 



THE CHEAPEST FORM OF LIGHT.' 



The object of this memoir is to show, by the study of the radi- 

 ation of the fire-fly, that it is possible to produce light without 

 heat other than that in the light itself, that this is actually effected 

 now by nature's processes, and that these are cheaper than our in- 

 dustrial ones in a degree hitherto^ Unrealized. By "cheapest" is 

 here meant the most economical in energ3', which, for our pur- 

 pose, is nearly synonymous with "heat ;" but, as a given amount 

 of heat is producible by a known expenditure of fuel at a known 

 cost, the word "cheapest" may also here be taken with little error 

 in its ordinary economic application. 



We recall that in all industrial methods of producing light 

 there is involved an enormous waste, greatest in sources of low 

 temperature, like the candle, lamp, or even gas illumination, 

 where, as has already been shown, it ordinarily exceeds 99 parts 

 in the 100; and least in sources of high temperature, like the in- 

 candescent light and electric arc, where yet it is still immense, 

 and amounts, even under the most favorable conditions, to very 

 much the larger part. 



It has elsewhere^ been stated, that, for a given expense, at least 

 one hundred times the light should in theory be obtainable which 

 we actually get by the present, most widely used methods of illu- 

 mination. This, it will be observed, is given as a minimum value; 

 and it is the object of the present research to demonstrate that 

 not only this possible increase, but one stiU greater, is actually ob- 

 tained now in certain natural processes, the successful imitation 

 of which we know of nothing to prevent. 



It is now universally admitted that wherever there is light there 

 has been expenditure of heat in the production of radiation, ex- 

 isting in and as the luminosity itself, since both are but forms of 

 the same energy; but this visible radiant heat which is inevitably 

 necessary is not to be considered as waste. The waste comes from 

 the present necessity of expending a great deal of heat in invisi- 

 ble forms before reaching even the slightest visible result; whUe 

 each increase of the light represents not only the small amount of 

 heat directly concerned in the making of the light itself, but a 

 new indirect expenditure in the production of invisible calorific 

 rays. Our eyes recognize heat mainly as it is conveyed in certain 

 rapid ethereal vibrations associated with high temperatures, while 

 we have no usual way of reaching these high temperatures with- 

 out passing through the intermediate low ones; so that, if tbe 

 vocal production of a short atmospheric vibration were subject to 

 analogous conditions, a high note could never be produced until 

 we had passed through the whole gamut, from discontinuous 

 sounds below the lowest bass, up successively through every lower 

 note of the scale till the desu-ed alto was attained. 



There are certain phenomena, long investigated yet little under- 

 stood, and grouped under the general name of "phosphorescent," 

 which form an apparent exception to this rule, especially where 



' Abstract o£ an article by S. P. Langley and F. W. Very, published in the 

 American Journal of Science for August, 1890. 



2 See results of an investigation by S. P. Langley, read before the Na- 

 tional Academy in 1883, and given in Science for June 1, 1883. where it is shown 

 that in the ordinary Argand burner gas-iiame indefinitely over 99 per cent ol 

 the radiant energy is (for illumination purposes) waste. ^ 



