iv 



INTRODUCTORY. 



compiled previously to 18(58. Many of the Natural History 

 volumes had beautiful colored illustrations, which serve their pur- 

 pose even at the present day. Natural History displays were of 

 common occurrence, when naturalists came together with their 

 treasures, and showed them to one another and to the public. 

 Of these the exhibitions given by Hiraga Gennai in the middle 

 of the eighteenth century were perhaps the most celebrated. The 

 present Botanic Garden of the Imperial University was established 

 early in the Tokugawa period, viz. in 1(581, and was long renown- 

 ed as the " Yaku En " (Garden of Medicinal Plants). The 

 mastery of the Dutch language by a few earnest physicians in 

 the middle of the eighteenth century has always seemed to me 

 one of the greatest triumphs ever achieved by patient scholarship. 

 Originally undertaken with the purpose of ascertaining something 

 about Western medicine, their efforts soon exerted an influence on 

 all branches of learning. The whole rich treasury of Western 

 civilization became suddenly accessible through the channel thus 

 opened of the Dutch language. It is not possible to overestimate 

 the effect of the new acquisition on the progress of Japan. Soffine 

 it here to say that the country would not be what it is to-day, 

 but for this leaven which had been working through and through 

 the whole mass of society for over a hundred years before the 

 Restoration of 1868 enabled it to bear its legitimate fruit. This 

 innovation, together with the visits of Thunberg (1775) and 

 Siebold (1821), had due effect upon the Natural History studies 

 also. The system of Linné, especially in regard to plants, seems 

 to have been well grasped, with very little delay. The most famous 

 productions of the new school on Natural History subjects are pro- 



