The University of Tokio

Abstract

IN vol. xxxv. of NATURE, p. 401, it was stated that the recent amalgamation of the Engineering College and the University of Tokio occasioned the “total elimination of Europeans from the teaching staff, their place being taken by Japanese.” Justice to the new University requires the correction of this statement, which is not only misleading, but erroneous. It is true that two well-known foreign Professors vacated their posts—one immediately after the amalgamation, and the other within six months thereafter. Their place, however (for they taught the same subject), is soon to be filled by an engineer who is expected shortly from England. But giving full allowance to this temporary vacancy, any person who will take the trouble to compare the number of foreign Professors in the two establishments before the incorporation with the number after will find that “the total elimination” amounts to “one.” Since the publication of the Calendar, again, no fewer than six have been added to the list of European Professors in the University.