566 



NATURE 



[July i, 1920 



stituted. The Commission propose the creation, not 

 of scientific departments, but of scientific services — 

 an essential distinction which has been clearly brought 

 out in the replies of Local Governments, though it 

 has not been so clearly apprehended by critics of the 

 proposal. The Commission contemplate the recruit- 

 ment of officers into separate scientific services, such 

 as a Chemical, Botanical, or Zoological Service, for 

 employment under Imperial and provincial depart- 

 ments, such as Forests and Agriculture, which deal 

 with the application of a number of separate sciences. 

 They propose that scientific officers in the employ of 

 the Government, instead of being recruited in small 

 numbers or single units into the different services 

 which happen to require them, should be recruited as 

 experts in their several sciences into scientific ser- 

 vices, each with its appropriate conditions of qualifica- 

 tion, pav, pension, and promotion. Although the ser- 

 vices wi'll be distinct entities for the above purposes, 

 yet the only members of those services that will not 

 be actually' employed under the various departments 

 that require their services will consist of a central 

 staff, engaged under such officers, for instance, as 

 Deputy Chief Chemists, at research centres, in 

 scientific work. This central agency will also serve 

 as a reservoir to meet the demands that may be put 

 forward by other departments or by Local Govern- 

 ments for 'men to undertake temporary special inves- 

 tigations, to fill new posts or leave vacancies, or for 

 the replacement of existing officers. 



The head of each scientific service would thus exer- 

 cise an influence over the members of his service in 

 matters scientific, by the check of scientific results, 

 and by the provision of advice and criticism on 

 scientific work, whether for Local Governments or for 

 research workers. It is not, we understand, pro- 

 posed bv the Commission, nor do we ourselves con- 

 template, that he should actually control research 

 work in the sense of ordering definite problems to 

 be taken up by officers serving under Local Govern- 

 ments, or should turn his department into a gang- of 

 hack researchers. We rely on constant correspondence 

 between scientific officers of the same caste and 

 periodical conferences as sufficient to correlate research 

 programmes. 



Local Governments and heads of Departments find 

 the greatest difficulty in forming an opinion of the 

 work done bv men of science employed under them, 

 or of the probable value of lines of research proposed 

 by their officers. Should the administrative authority 

 consider the results obtained by a man of science un- 

 satisfactory, it is almost impossible to obtain an 

 authoritative opinion on his work or qualifications ; or 

 to sav whether'he might not do better in another post ; 

 or to find such a post for him. The difficulties aris- 

 ing from the existence of isolated specialists in a 

 department are, in fact, notorious. 



The impossibility of applying any common measure 

 in determining the respective claims to promotion^ of a 

 botanist, a chemist, an engineer, and a political 

 economist has been recognised in the existing services 

 bv the creation of separate Qosts on a time-scale. But 

 this does not get over the difficulties already indicated, 

 or supplv the proper incentive to the research worker, 

 or afford scope or prospects for men of more than 

 average ability. The absence of such prospects^ is 

 bound to militate against our chances of obtaining 

 tfood recruits, to render our staff discontented, and 

 to prevent our securing the best work from the best 



"^Moreover, so long as students of a particular science 

 are recruited sporadicallv on behalf of different 

 departments as vacancies occur, the Government will 

 have to accept the men that happen to be left over, 

 whatever their qualifications, after other and more 

 NO. 2644, VOL. 105] 



regular demands have been supplied. The prospect 

 of regular annual recruitment will enable the Govern- 

 ment of India to fill its future demands for men of 

 science, as it has hitherto done for engineers, forest 

 officers, and medical men. 



The present system, under which the only chemists 

 employed by the State are scattered through numerous 

 departments without any organisation that can mar- 

 shal the chemical forces of the country to attack 

 problems of national importance, can give no help 

 towards an active Vidustrial policy. 



We might quote as illustrating the inspiring value 

 of a central co-ordinating authority, the work under- 

 taken by the Munitions Board through its chemical 

 adviser. The report of the conference of chemists 

 at Lahore shows that even our isolated and scattered 

 chemists .can be moulded into one team for the pur- 

 pose of suggesting new lines of research and means 

 for turning the results to practical account without 

 overlapping and consequent waste of effort. 



This experience, in the light of the magnificent 

 results obtained in England by the Research Com- 

 mittee of the Privy Council, shows clearly how much 

 may be expected from a system which provides a 

 permanent organic connection between all chemists 

 in Government employ. 



The importance of a common system of recruit- 

 ment and of a common service has recently been 

 recognised by the council of the Institute of Chemis- 

 try in the United Kingdom {vide Proceedings of the 

 Institute of Chemistry, 191S, part iv., p. 14) in a 

 representation submitted by them to all Government 

 Departments in which chemists are employed. They 

 state their opinion that "the time is opportune^ for 

 taking steps to secure for the provision of chemistry 

 a position corresponding to that occupied by the 

 learned professir)ns, and they feel that much would 

 be accomplished towards the attainment of that end 

 if, in the first place, adequate and uniform conditions 

 of appointment were accorded to chemists directly 

 engaged in the service of the State. The necessity- 

 for a definitelv organised chemical service (both in 

 peace and war) for all purposes of the State on which 

 the science of chemistrV has a bearing has long been 

 recognised in the chemical profession." 



Conditions in India render the services of chemists 

 employed under Government of even greater rela- 

 tive importance than in England. India is far more 

 deficient than England in the knowledge of its raw 

 materials and of the appropriate industrial processes; 

 consulting chemists and chemists in private employ 

 are almost entirelv absent here, and this deficiency 

 is not likelv soon to be remedied. Research institutes 

 with speci'al reference to a particular industry in 

 England, it would seem, will usuallv be financed and 

 controlled by the industry itself, with a Government 

 grant-in-aid, whereas in India the position will be 

 precisely the opposite, and the industry will relv 

 primariiv on State chemists. We therefore agree with 

 the Commission that the advancement of industries 

 in India must depend for scientific assistance almost 

 entirelv on State-emploved men, and these men will 

 be far 'more concerned with the initiation of important 

 new lines of development and research and far less 

 with merelv routine work than is the case in England. 

 The need of organisation is the greater in that the 

 functions of Indian State chemists are more important 

 to the countrv; while their greater isolation and the 

 conseouent absence of a scientific atmosphere turnis^ 

 an additional argument. The case for a Stat^ 

 chemical service is thus even stronger in India thaflt 

 in England. , • . ^ua 



We are much influenced bv the prospects which tft. 

 proposed system affords of increasing the number (^ 



