Science in Japan.¹

Abstract

THE growth of modern science in Japan is one of the most interesting phenomena connected with the history of civilization. The Japanese, and the Magyars of Hungary, are the only peoples of other than Aryan stock who have founded Universities and taken part in the development of the historical and physical sciences. The University of Buda-Pesth dates from the fifteenth century, and at the present moment its large staff of eminent Professors contains but few names which are not distinctively those of Magyar nationality. The University of Tokyo was founded in the year 1868 by the union of the Tokyo Daigaku and the Kobu Daigakko. It has more than seven hundred students, and comprises a College of Law, with eleven Professors, of whom one only is a European; a College of Medicine, with sixteen Professors, all native Japanese; a College of Engineering, with eighteen Professors, three of whom bear English names; a College of Literature, with ten Professors, of whom two are Englishmen and two Germans; a College of Science, with fifteen Professors, amongst whom one—a chemist—is English, the rest being Japanese.