406 Tokutaro Ito. — A Short Memoir of I to Keisukd \ 
Professors Hoffmann, Miquel, and Schultes examined these 
portfolios, and Professor Miquel gave an exhaustive description 
of the Herbarhmi Botanici versatissimi, I too Keiske, in prov. 
Owari ins. Nippon degentis , Sieboldi amici , forma octava 
maxima XIII volumina (quaedam alia deperdita). 
On his return to Nagoya from Nagasaki Ito Keisuke began 
to practise medicine on the Dutch system. At this time the 
Chinese system was in vogue, and the innovation was looked 
at askance, in fact was suspected of sorcery, and the physician 
incurred some odium. 
Disregarding this danger, Ito persisted in his efforts to 
promulgate Dutch learning and science, now explaining the 
grammar and collecting vocabularies of Dutch, now insisting 
upon the advantages of vaccination, or setting forth the 
principles of chemical science and the progress of western 
philosophy. Meanwhile he prosecuted the new system of 
medicine until at last pupils began to gather around him and 
patients to besiege his doors. For forty years he continued 
to practise foreign medicine at Nagoya, but in the intervals 
of leisure afforded during a busy career, showed a sustained 
interest in natural science. In 1832 and 1838 he botanized 
in Shinano, in 1852 and 1855 in Omi, Yamashiro, Settsu, Ise, 
and Shima, in conjunction at various times with Yoshida 
Heikuro and Iinuma Yokusai 1 . 
In 1827 he established a Museum of Pharmacy in Nagoya, 
and later in 1858 a Physic Garden in the same town and 
a Natural History Museum. 
In 1837 a famine raged in Japan. Moved by the pitiable 
condition of the distressed people, our venerable doctor wrote 
a pamphlet ( Kiuko Shokubutsn Benran ) on Edible Plants 
which the Daimyo, struck by its utility, ordered to be printed, 
and caused thousands of copies to be circulated throughout his 
fief in the provinces of Owari, Mikawa, and Mino. The next 
year a great fire occurred in Yedo, and the Nishimaru quarter 
of the Castle (seat of the Bakufu Government) was burnt down. 
To procure hinoki (Chamaecyparis) timber for rebuilding the 
1 Author of the well-known Somoku Zusetsn (Illustrated Flora). 
