Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/622

616 After this he traveled in Europe, visited universities, English and continental, and thence returned to Japan. There he arrived at an opportune moment: the department of zoology which had been organized by Morse and given a second bent by Whitman, was in a state of upheaval. Japan in general was then beginning to assert her intellectual rights: from the imported foreigners it had learned nearly all it felt the need of, and in this instance there seemed no reason why one branch of the educational work should not be carried on entirely by Japanese. Mitsukuri entered into the work with his new training, and with a knowledge of Japanese diplomacy and breeding and obligations which no foreigner, at least in those days, had mastered. So it came about that the department of zoology began a new development, and in this work Mitsukuri would be the first to testify how much he owed to his trusted associate, Professor Iijima, and his other colleagues.

Mitsukuri devoted much of his life in Japan to his numerous pupils, sacrificing to no little degree his research work. He was tireless in his attendance at the university, accessible at all times, and with an affectionate friendliness which no one appreciates more keenly than a Japanese. "I feel I have lost a parent," writes Dr. M—. And this is the common sentiment among his pupils. His attitude was ideal: he was frank, inspiring, uncompromising when a question involved accuracy or scientific purpose. "How different," he would say, "is the training of the diplomat and the scientist—the one studies to dress up the truth, the other to expose it naked." in spite of his long years of foreign training" because of it," he would perhaps have said), Mitsukuri was intensely Japanese—patriotic to his finger-tips, alert to point out the advantages of his country's ways, but like Okakura, so skilful in his dissection of the failings of his foreign friends that they never minded the pain. None the less, I have still the feeling that the Japanese looked upon him as somewhat too progressive. He admitted foreigners among his most intimate friends, he had rooms in his house in foreign style, and his family took its place in social gatherings in the same informal way as in America or Europe. And he could think as a foreigner, and he certainly could write as one, for his English never betrayed him. And he had a wide circle of correspondents for whom he was constantly doing, and with the greatest courtesy, troublesome favors.

For zoology in Japan Mitsukuri did these things: He directed the upbuilding of the zoological and, to a certain degree (as dean of the science college), the scientific work of the university; he organized zoology in Japan, making his department its focus, not only in technical matters but popular and semi-popular as well; he was the moving spirit in sending zoological expeditions throughout Japan from Sagahalin to the Liu Chiu islands—even to Tai Wan; he was conspicuous in founding and developing the Misaki Biological Station; he was potent in building up a fisheries bureau, officered it with his pupils and contributed to its publications; he gave an important stimulus to the pearl industry in Japan and furnished numerous ideas to the culturists who sought to produce natural pearls by artificial means; and last of all he lifted up the position of zoology throughout the country by means of his many-sided teachings and by means of the influence exerted in his behalf by many friends in all stations. In this regard it has often been said he had not a few personal attributes of our own Professor Baird.

His researches cover many branches of zoology. At the time of his death he was completing a monograph of the holothurians of Japan. "We must do systematic work," he said in mock apology, "for you know that nearly everything we find here is new, and it