280 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX.. 2s o 215 



It is handsomely printed in the English language, 

 and presents very many points of interest. 



We learn from it that the Teikoku Daigaku, or 

 Imperial university, was organized March 1, 1886, 

 by an imperial ordinance. The former Tokyo 

 university and the college of engineering q,re 

 merged in the present institution. The university 

 is under the control of the minister of state for 

 education, and depends for its revenue on annual 

 allowances from the treasury of the imperial gov- 

 ernment. The offices of the university, the li- 

 brary, the colleges of law, medicine, literature, 

 and science, the hospital attached to the college 

 of medicine, and the dormitories of these four 

 colleges, — all the university, in fact, except the 

 college of engineering, which has its temporary 

 location elsewhere, — are situated on extensive 

 grounds near Tokyo. In the ordinance founding 

 the university, its object is declared to be "the 

 teaching of such arts and sciences as are required 

 for the purposes of the state, and the prosecution 

 of original investigations in such arts and sci- 

 ences." The president of the university is assisted 

 by a board of councillors, who have charge of the 

 curricula of studies and the promotion of the in- 

 terests of the university and those of each college. 

 These councillors are selected from the professors 

 by the minister of education, each college being 

 entitled to two. Their term of service is five 

 years. Each college has a director or dean 

 chosen from its professors. The academic year 

 extends, as is usual with us, from September un- 

 til June, and consists of three terms. Admission 

 to the first-year class is only granted to such stu- 

 dents as have completed the course in one of the 

 high middle schools, or can pass an examination 

 instituted by the university authorities. The 

 marking system is in force, and elaborate rules 

 for its regulation are given. There is also a sys- 

 tem of elective studies, and a large number of 

 scholars liips are provided for deserving and needy 

 students. 



In connection with the medical college, a hos- 

 pital is provided for the admission of such pa- 

 tients as may be deemed instructive cases in medi- 

 cal and surgical practice and investigation. The 

 hospital contains five wards and two hundred and 

 sixteen beds in all. Scientific investigations into 

 the nature of 'kakke,' an endemic disease pecul- 

 iar to Japan, are carried on here continually. The 

 library — which contains 180,000 volumes — and 

 museums are extensive and well arranged, and 

 there is a special observatory for the study of 

 earthquake phenomena. The general results of 

 these observations are published from time to 

 time in English and Japanese. There is also a 

 botanic garden and a marine biological laboratory. 



The university has now 540 students, of whom 

 183 are law students. 204 medical, 81 in the col- 

 lege of engineering, 33 in the college of literature, 

 and 30 in the college of science. The curriculum 

 is surprisingly "comprehensive, and the announce- 

 ments of courses closely resemble those of a Ger- 

 man university. The corps of professors and lec- 

 turers includes a number of Europeans and Ameri- 

 cans, as well as many natives who have obtained 

 degrees either in this country or in Europe. 

 Among the universities and colleges represented 

 by graduates on the faculty are those of Berlin, 

 Paris, London, Strasburg, Leipzig, Erlangen, 

 Heidelberg, Dublin, Gottingen, Freiberg, Glas- 

 gow, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Munich in 

 Europe, and Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Johns 

 Hopkins. Michigan, Cornell, Hamilton, Amherst, 

 and Stevens institute in this country. 



ALEXANDER'S PROBLEMS 

 LOSOPHY. 



OF PHI- 



So much of the philosophical writing of the day 

 is either barren reiDetition or empty rhetoric, that 

 it is something of a surprise to find a book on 

 pure philosophy, written by a man who not only 

 has a definite end in vievy, but who knows what 

 that end is ; and who, to reach that end, has not 

 found it necessary to get together a laborious 

 treatise on the human mind or a huge encyclo- 

 paedia of ethical S' ience. In one hundred and 

 seventy pages, Professor Alexander has given 

 us a little work of real timeliness and value. For 

 clearness and profundity of thought, deftness of 

 presentation, and lucidity of style. Professor Alex- 

 ander's book is not surpassed by any philosophical 

 work of similar scope in the language. We are 

 gratified to miss in it cumbrous terminologies, in- 

 volved sentences, and inapposite illustrations. It 

 is so simple, frank, and straightforward, that it 

 will appeal to a large class of thoughtful men who 

 are accustomed to sneer at philosophy and its 

 devotees. 



The various chapters are themselves so tersely 

 worded, that any summary of them that would be 

 just and at the same time much shorter than the 

 chapters themselves, is impossible. 



The opening chapter, 'The difficulties of phi- 

 losophy,' strikes the keynote of the book. The 

 author shows that many so-called philosophical 

 difficulties are not difficulties at all, but simple 

 fictions, originated by ignorant or superficial per- 

 sons, who set them forth ' as lightly as they tell 

 an after-dinner story.' Professor Alexander very 

 justly refuses to spend his time in criticising such 



Some problems of philosophy. By Archibald Alexan- 

 der, Ph.D. New York, Scribner. 16°. 



