著者
渡邊 洋之
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.39, no.213, pp.1-10, 2000 (Released:2021-08-23)
被引用文献数
1

This paper attempts to explain a part of history related to the protection of wildlife and biological diversity by analyzing a certain person's view of nature. It picks out a zoologist,Shozaburo WATASE (1862-1929). WATASE's two activities, namely to enthusiastically introduce living things and to protect wildlife by establishing and designating natural monuments, seem to us to be a contradiction now. But by analyzing WATASE's discourse, I think they are not. WATASE's arguments for his two activities had trust in the "power of human work" in common. And they commonly set human beings in the absolute position in which he believed they could control nature. Moreover, it has become obvious that both of WATASE's arguments for his two activities were connected with Japanese colonial rules at that time. This fact suggests that to intend to conquer nature or to have trust in exercising the "power of human work" over nature is related to colonial rules, which are the intention and action to expand one's own sphere and rule others. And I think this fact also raises a question for reflective work on the way science should be, because we can regard biology, a part of science, as a form of exercising of the "power of human work".
著者
藤田 康元
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.39, no.213, pp.11-19, 2000 (Released:2021-08-23)

Edwin Powell Hubble is famous for the discovery of the linear relation between nebulae distances and redshifts, and he is often referred to as a discoverer of "the expanding universe". In fact the relation was received as an empirical evidence for the theory of expanding universe by many scientists within a few year after Hubble had showed it in his 1929's paper. However Hubble never regarded it as self-evident that nebulae redshifts were caused by Doppler effect of nebulae recession. In principle redshift can be produced if light quanta lose energy by some unknown mechanisms on their path from nebulae to us (tired light hypothesis). Hubble never supported only one side of interpretations of redshift, and claimed whether nebulae were actually receding or not must be solved by observation. Moreover,, with R. C. Tolman, Hubble elaborated methods of investigating the nature of the nebulae redshift. Why was he so careful? Hubble often stated his empiric view of science such as agreement is secured by means of observation and experiment. In this respect he sharply contrasted with Arthur Eddington who was a Hubble's comtemporary and enthusiast for the theory of expanding universe. We, however, can not make his empiricism substancial as a unique cause of his careful attitude. We need to see wider context of Hubble's scientific activity. First he had a tool for solving the problem. A new telescope was being constructed in the 1930's. And he played a social role to present scientific problems the 200 inch reflector should challenge. In this strategic context, Hubble shaped the nature of redshifts as one of the major unsolved problems. In that process he used resources such as "tired light hypothesis", a cosmic age contradiction, empirical view of science, new telescope it self. Conversely, the redshifts problem was used as a resource justifying the construction of the 200 inch. These resources can be seen as constraints at the same time which canalized Hubble's activities to a certain direction.
著者
株本 訓久
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.39, no.213, pp.20-29, 2000 (Released:2021-08-23)

Kiyotugu HIRAYAMA's role in the history of Astronomy in Japan is examined in light of his work on the families of asteroid. In addition to this work, he also published two papers about stellar evolution in 1931. In these he suggested the capture hypothesis theory whereby a star gets mass and energy from the nebulae which captured it. This theory differed significantly from the accepted contemporary theory in two points related to energy source and evolution. The theory linked the source of the energy in stars with Mayer's fall theory and Helmholtz's contraction theory. HIRAYAMA thought that this theory could explain the formation of all stars, including binary stars and star clusters, and even the whole solar system. At that time in Japan, S, TAKEDA's studies of stellar evolution applied mass annihilation theory based on relativity theory. However K. HIRAYAMA didn't apply annihilation theory. Given a dynamic astronomical point of view, it was natural for K. HIRAYAMA to have applied the capture hypothesis rather than the mass annihilation theory. This theory seemed to be farsighted in terms of regarding the solar system formation as a common star one, but we couldn't reduce this so simply, because he suggested his theory on the condition that many stars were in proximity at the formation of binary stars, and star cluster. His theory is similar to Shinzo SHINJYO's theory in that he applied his theory to all stellar evolution. It is interesting to note that they went on to form the non-plusation theory of Cepheid variables from this theory.
著者
今野 宏之
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.39, no.213, pp.31-36, 2000 (Released:2021-08-23)

This paper deals with Kramers' application of Bohr's correspondence principle to the calculation of line intensities. His results of the Stark effect of hydrogen lines were favorably accepted by.the contemporary quantum physicists. One reason for this is there existed no competitive mathematical manipulation other than Kramers' in the period of old quantum theory. The critical appraisal was later given by SchrSdinger in terms of wave mechanics. However, SchrOdinger's theoretical calculation also contained some disagreement with Stark's empirical results in 1915. This discrepancy was soon eliminated by the more elaborated experiments in 1929. New experiments confirmed the validity of Schrodinger's theoretical result.
著者
遠藤 次郎 中村 輝子
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.34, no.193, pp.1, 1995 (Released:2021-08-27)

It has been said that the tridosha theory in Ayurveda originated from the theory of the three elements of the universe. The names of these three doshas, which are roughly equivalent to humour, are vata (wind), pitta (bile), and kapha (phlegm), corresponding to the three elements of the universe: air, fire, and water. On the other hand, Buddhist medicine which has a close relation to Ayurveda is based on the theory of the four elements of the universe which includes the earth as well as the three elements mentioned above. Greek medicine on the other hand, is founded on the theory of the four humours, i. e. blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Furthermore, even in Ayurveda, like in "Sushruta Samhita", the theory of the four humours can be found: This includes the abovd-mentioned tridosha plus blood as the forth humour. "Timaios" by Plato also mentions this. We compared these various theories and pointed out that the tridosha theory had its origin in the theory of the four elements of the universe. The process of the formation of the tridosha theory is considered as follows:(1) "Earth" was segregated from the four elements of the universe owing to its solid properties, and was rearranged into the seven elments of the body called "dhatu"; and the other three elements, uwatern, "fire", and "air",were integrated as the tridosha theory, namely, the theory of the three humours, owing to th&r properties of fluid; (2)"Blood", assigned to the element of "earth", was segregated from the tridosha because "blood" was considered to be comprised of the properties of every humour without having its own peculiar properties. Therefore, the diseases caused by deranged "blood" were regarded as an aggregate disease caused by the other three deranged humours. Then the category of the disease, caused by deranged "earth", did not appear.
著者
小林 龍彦
出版者
日本科学史学会
雑誌
科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.34, no.193, pp.10-18, 1995 (Released:2021-08-27)

Relaxation of the book prohibition policy in 1720, the fifth year of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune's reign, made possible the importation of astronomical, calendrical and mathematical books from China. As a result "Lixiang kaocheng" <暦象考成> which was published by Chinese scientists under cooperation with the Jesuit in 1723, "Lixiang kaocheng houbian" <暦象考成後編> which was compiled by I. Koegler in 1742, "Lishuan chuanshu" <暦算全書> which was completed by Mei Wending's family in 1723 and so forth were introduced into Japan. Kohan Sakabe <坂部廣胖> (1759-1824) was a mathematician who had a great interest in trigonometry in these scientific books. Basic formulae of the right spherical triangle and the oblique spherical triangle in these books with so many astronomical examples were very useful in establishing his mathematical idea. In 1812 K. Sakabe wrote "Kanki kodo shoho" <管窺弧度捷法>,and in 1815 "Sanpo tenzan shinan-roku" <算法點竄指南録>, a mathematical book which had a good reputation as a textbook among Wasan-ka, was published and in the next year a navigation's book, "Kairo anshin-roku" <海路安心録>, was published. We must point out here that "Kanki kodo shoho", "Sanpo tenzan shinan-roku" and "Kairo anshin-roku" were written under the influence of astronomical, calendrical and mathematical books mentioned above. It will be a proof that he had learned part of western astronomy as a Wasan-ka. Therefore, this paper details his mathematical idea and the background of spherical trigonometry from the following viewpoints: ① His mathematical idea on spherical trigonometry is based on the contents of "Lishuan chuanshu" and "Lixiang kaocheng". ② He try to create new formulae of spherical trigonometry in "Sanpo tenzan shinan-roku". ③ He understand the principle of duality and the polar triangle very well