PREFACE 



I AM asked whether the title of this book means especially 

 a pioneer in science, who happens to be an Indian, or a 

 pioneer of science in and for India. The answer is Both. 

 For on one hand Bose is the first Indian of modern times who 

 has done distinguished work in science, and his life-story 

 is thus at once of interest to his scientific contemporaries 

 in other countries and of encouragement and impulse to 

 his countrymen. But it will also be seen, in the general 

 world of science, independent of race, nationality and 

 language, which looks only to positive results, that 

 here is much of pioneering work, and this upon levels 

 rarely attained, with intercrossing tracks still commonly 

 held and treated as distinct in physics, in physiology, 

 both vegetable and animal, and even in psychology. 

 Pioneering too in all these fields, not in virtue of 

 mere variety of interests, of mental versatility, and of 

 inventive faculty of the rarest kind, though all these are 

 present, but also as guided, inspired, even impassioned, by 

 an endowment more than usually deep and strong of that 

 _faith in cosmic order and unity which is the fundamental 

 concept of each and all the sciences. So it has come 

 to pass that we have in this single and long solitary worker 

 ' a mind working in long sweeps and attracted alike by 

 gulfs which separate, and by borderlands which unite/ and 

 successful to a high and rare degree in such high intel- 

 lectual adventures. Hence his contributions are from their 

 very outset towards the unification of whole groups of 

 phenomena hitherto explored separately. But here is not 



