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Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
Other studies besides Chinese were often taken up by different individ- 
uals, either according to their own taste or by the order of their lords. Thus, 
those who would be doctors had to study the Chinese system of medicine 
with other doctors, for there was no school at which it was taught. 
Mathematics, originally introduced from China, were cultivated by some 
few. Seki, a contemporary of Newton, was a great mathematician. He 
invented a system of algebra, which was entirely original and gave him 
immense power in his further investigations. The results obtained by Seki 
and his disciples by their original investigations in metrical geometry, 
algebra, theory of series, etc., were of a very high order. In natural 
sciences, also, some progress was made, and Siebold, when he came to Japan 
to study our flora and fauna, found some very eager and enthusiastic 
pupils. There were many other branches of learning which were pursued 
by various people. Fine arts, industrial arts, and even games, such as Go 
and Chess, were encouraged and pursued with good results. Foreign 
learning was not wholly unknown towards the latter part of the Shogunate. 
I cannot forbear from telling you of one doctor named Maeno Rankwa 
(1723-1803), who, after succeeding in getting a knowledge of the Dutch 
alphabet and some two or three hundred words with great difficulty, got 
hold of a Dutch book of anatomy, and, comparing the figures in it with the 
body of an executed criminal which he secretly dissected, and being greatly 
struck by their correctness as contrasted with the old Chinese idea, 
determined with a few friends of like spirit to translate the book. It 
was almost like deciphering hieroglyphics, but after four years of hard 
work he at last succeeded in the task. Such was the spirit which actuated 
some, at least, of the old Samurai in their search for knowledge. 
This introduction of foreign knowledge may be considered a part of a 
remarkable intellectual revolutionary movement towards the end of the 
eighteenth century, somewhat similar to the Illuminism in Europe at the same 
period. It appeared in almost every branch of intellectual activity, in 
literature, in arts, in religion, and in politics. The rise of Neo-Shintoism 
and study of the history of Japan prepared the mind of more earnest 
thinkers to comprehend the real nature of the essential constitution of our 
empire. The usurpation of the powers of government by the Shoguns was 
beginning to be resented as an act of disloyalty and unrighteousness. More- 
over, occasional collisions with the Russians in the north were enough to 
cause a great deal of anxiety in thoughtful minds. Thus the country was 
ripe for a great change when Commodore Perry first appeared on our coast, 
in 1853, and by introducing the complications of foreign relations hastened 
the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This took place in 1868, only 
