Abstract
A manuscript on physics composed of 160 leaves of Japanese paper, having been preserved in the Kume Museum (Tokyo), was made open to public on the occasion of the Exhibition "Kunitake Kume and Bei-0 Kairan Jikki (The Iwakura Embassy Itinerary)" held at the Museum in 1985. Inspection of the MS revealed that it was written by K. Kume (1839~1936), a Japanese historian, who compiled Bei-0 Kairan Jikki (first published in 1878 and now available as 5 volumes of Iwanami Bunko). Detailed analysis of the MS has made clear that it was a partial translation from a Dutch book, Eerste Grondbeginselen der Natuurkunde (1847~) by P. van der Burg (1808〜1889) enlarged with free and wide-flung annotations of Kume's own. In the present paper, given are the results of comparative study among the MS, Grondbeginselen, Bei-0 Kairan Jikki and the related literatures
