July i, 1920] 



NATURE 



5^7 



Indians in the scientific services. An Indian appointed 

 to an isolated post, or as an assistant to an isolated 

 professor in a country where the scientific atmosphere 

 is non-existent, or at the best exceedingly attenuated, 

 lacks guidance and the stimulus of his fellows in the 

 pursuit of scientific knowledge. His ambitions tend 

 to become limited to the improvement of his pay and 

 prospects rather than of his professional attainments. 

 His membership of an all-India service, based on the 

 pursuit of a common science, will increase the pres- 

 tige of that science in his eyes and in those of the 

 Indian public; the existence of the proposed Imperial 

 nucleus of scientific workers under a distinguished 

 chief will provide him with an incitement to excel 

 with assistance in his studies and with opportunity for 

 training if he desires it. 



The Commission propose that, if the principle of 

 scientific services is approved, committees should be 

 appolnied to formulate proposals for the permanent 

 organisation and the terms of employment of each 

 such service, and for the location and equipment of 

 research laboratories. We support this recommenda- 

 tion, subject to the condition that the terms of refer- 

 ence to each committee should include a direction to 

 report as to the advisability of constituting all-India 

 services for each well-defined science. 



Without anticipating the conclusions of the pro- 

 posed committees, we think it desirable, in view of 

 criticisms which have been expressed, to indicate 

 certain principles in the general administration of 

 these services which should govern the relations 

 between the members of the scientific services and 

 the heads of departments and provincial Govern- 

 ments, under whom many of them will be employed. 



We do not think that members of scientific services 

 should be seconded bv the method which the Com- 

 mission propose, viz. by deputation for periods of five 

 vears at a time ; but we consider that (as in the case 

 of other services) an officer, when once placed per- 

 manentlv under the orders of a local Government, 

 should remain with the Government for the rest of 

 his service, unless the Government under which he 

 is serving itself desires his transfer, or unless his 

 services are required in a higher post or in a post 

 requiring special qualifications outside the province, in 

 which case the local Government will recognise that 

 the Imperial Government has a claim on them. This 

 is the system which exists at present in respect of all 

 similar services. 



Local Governments would have complete liberty to 

 appoint, after consulting the head of the service, to 

 any post in their industrial or scientific cadre, any 

 available member of the respective services ; they 

 would also be at libertv, in the special circumstances 

 arising during the initial stages, to appoint to such 

 posts men outside the service; but the subsequent 

 admission to the all-India service of men so apoointed 

 would be entirely controlled by the Secretary of State. 

 The local Governments universally support the pro- 

 posed scheme of scientific serv!|-es, and though the 

 Governments of the Punjab, the United Provinces, 

 and Bombay, and the officers and public bodies con- 

 sulted bv them, put forward certain criticisms of the 

 scheme,' especially with reference to the position of 

 men of science in the Education Department, these 

 criticisms are, we think, fully met by the foregoing 

 explanation of the lines on which we think the pro- 

 posed services should be administered. 



We desire, however, to add a few remarks with 

 special reference to the case of science teachers. We 

 fuilv recognise that much is required of a scientific 

 professor in a college, outside his scientific Avork. 

 He must look on himself as a member of the body 

 responsible for the tone of the college and for its 

 NO. 2644, VOL. 105] 



general success. It will, therefore, we agree, be 

 most undesirable that such a man should contmuously 

 have in mind the possibility of promotion outside his 

 own departtiient. We think, however, that this 

 difficulty will be obviated by the general principle laid 

 down. by us above, viz. that members of scientific ser- 

 vices serving under the Department of Education 

 should not be removed from that Department, unless 

 at the request of the educational authorities, or for 

 posts requiring high administrative capacity, or special 

 scientific qualifications. 



The advantage to the Education Department of a 

 system of scientific services will still be very con- 

 siderable. In the first place, we consider that, 

 though university and college science workers should 

 be by no means entirely divorced from technical re- 

 search, their main sphere of activity should lie among 

 problems of pure science. The proposed central 

 scientific organisation should afford a means wherebv 

 such problems arising in the course of technical re- 

 search can be referred to university and college 

 laboratories. 



Such co-ordination, both in respect of pure science 

 problems and technical problems, can be most readily 

 effected in cases where the educational researchers 

 are themselves members of a scientific service. This 

 policy will doubtless stimulate the interest in research 

 work taken by students and professors. Officers who 

 have entered the educational service as teachers may 

 be in some cases expected to develop as research 

 workers. The existence of all-India scientific services 

 will afford a ready means for accommodating men 

 whose aims in life have thus been diverted from one 

 form of work to another. In the next place, the 

 present system of recruitment of men of science into 

 the Educational Service is capable of improvement, 

 and far better results could be* obtained with the aid 

 and advice of watchful central agencies in India. 

 The absence of a scientific atmosphere, again, has 

 been particularly injurious to scientific officers in the 

 Educational Service, and has led to great stagnation 

 in respect of research work. This atmosphere will in 

 future reach individual officers by the numerous 

 channels of communication which will be created 

 between them and the central agency on technical 

 subjects, whether by way of correspondence, confer- 

 ences, and scientific publications, by the central staff's 

 tours of inspection, or by officers sf)ending some por- 

 tion of their vacations at research institutes. The 

 case of men of scienct^ at present employed under the 

 Department of Education will obviously require care- 

 ful treatment ; such men should not be allowed to 

 join the scientific services as a matter of course, but 

 each case will have to be considered on its merits, 

 and there may still be classes of appointments for 

 which men will have to be recruited independently. 

 Further, the whole question, so far as it affects the 

 employment of officers with scientific qualifications in 

 colleges and universities, will have to be reviewed in 

 connection with the proposals of the Calcutta Uni- 

 versity Commission regarding recruitment. 



In addition to the opinions expressed in the letters 

 received from local Governments, two important con- 

 ferences of chemists have recently put forward their 

 views on the Commission's proposals.. A record of 

 their discussions is appended. .A full meeting of the 

 .Sectional Conference of .Agricultural Chemists at Pusa 

 in February passed the following resolution : — 



"That this Conference considers that, in view of 

 the intense local knowledge required for effective 

 work for agricultural improvement by chemical 

 methods, it is not desirable that the chemists in the 

 Agricultural Departments should be formed into a 

 service apart from the ordinary agricultural service, 



