VI INTRODUCTORY. 



History was swept away, as chessmen from the hoard at the end 

 of a game. So far as our science is concerned, there is a complete 

 break at this period. The modern school of Zoology dates from 

 the appointment of Prof. E. S. Morse of Salem, Mass., U. S. A. 

 to the chair of Zoology at the University of Tokyo, in 1 M77. 

 His indefatigable zeal and genial manners won many friends for 

 the new science among all classes of society, while his lectures, 

 popular or otherwise, drew attention for the first time to the im- 

 mense strides which our science, under the stimulus of Darwinism, 

 was making in the West. He, with a few students under him. 

 also soon had in working order a tolerably good museum — the 

 nucleus of the present Zoological and Anthropological collections of 

 the Science College. It was also during his stay and through 

 his care that the Tokyo Biological Society, from which the 

 Tokyo Zoological Society is directly descended, was first organized. 

 It is truly wonderful how much he accomplished in the brief 

 time he was in Japan. On the return of Prof. Morse to America, 

 he was succeeded by Prof. C. 0. Whitman, now of the University 

 of Chicago. It was the latter who first introduced modern 

 technical methods. These two Americans, Morse and Whitman, 

 thus stood sponsors to the modern school of Zoology in Japan. 



Since 1881, the development of Zoology in this country has 

 been entirely in the hands of Japanese.* The spirit of earnest 



* Some who read this statement may consider that I have not given due credit to 

 those zoologists from other countries who have lived in, or visited, Japan from time to 

 time. It is certainly as far as possible from my iutention to slight the labors of 

 Hilgendorf, Döderlein, Pbyer and others, but the fact remains that the recent 

 development of the zoological school in Japan lias been almost entirely independent of 

 these men. It is a pleasure to me to add that Mr. Ovvston of Yokohama has been 

 very active in unearthing the treasures of the deeper parts in the Sagami Sen. 



