In [*On Utumi's ring of quotients*, Canad. J. Math. 15(1963), 363-370][1], J. Lambek says: > As a matter of historical record, the minimal injective extension of a module is a special case of the "algebraic closure" of an algebraic system considered by K. Shoda in his paper [*Zur Théorie der algebraischen Erweiterungen*, Osaka Math. J., 4 (1952), 133-144][2]. Since I cannot read German, I cannot understand what the paper by Shoda says, although I think that he does defer the definitions to his previous papers *Uber die allgemeinen algebraischen Systeme I-VIII* (links provided below). I would like to know: 1) What exactly his algebraic systems are (maybe the varieties of universal algebra?). 2) Which are his fundamental results about said systems (in these or other papers). A published translation/review/summary would serve me perfectly. The MathSciNet reviews of the first papers are too vague, enumerating examples and talking about "certain operations", "various relations", etc. **Links to the I-VIII papers:** 1) https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pja/1195578672 2) https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pja/1195573978 3) https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pja/1195573940 4) https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pja/1195573901 5) https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pja/1195573626 6) https://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.pja/1195573484 7) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab1912/19/9/19_9_515/_pdf 8) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab1912/20/8/20_8_584/_pdf [1]: https://cms.math.ca/openaccess/cjm/v15/cjm1963v15.0363-0370.pdf [2]: https://ir.library.osaka-u.ac.jp/repo/ouka/all/11545/omj04_02_04.pdf