38 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



struggled ; until, out of his own earnings, the balance of 

 the 25 per cent, which the creditors had renounced was 

 paid them in full. 



As regards Bose's work at the Presidency College, where 

 his capacity for teaching and maintaining discipline was 

 to be tested, his influence over the students became estab- 

 lished from the first day. The usual device of taking 

 daily roll to enforce regular attendance at the classes was 

 found superfluous ; and so interested did the students 

 become in his lectures that there used to be a struggle for 

 securing front seats for better view of the experiments. 

 The cram books, formerly used for memorising purposes, 

 were soon discarded as unnecessary. His old students, 

 even those who in later life have taken up other professions, 

 still recall with delight, as the writer can testify, the 

 permanent impression made on them by his direct and 

 vivid method of teaching. 



After three years' work in this temporary post, both the 

 Principal (Mr. C. H. Tawney) and the Director of Public 

 Instruction (Sir Alfred Croft) came fully to realise the 

 value of Bose's professorial work, and to understand his 

 character, and they became henceforth his staunchest friends. 

 The Director had found that Bose could be inflexible when 

 questions of principle were concerned. Bose on his part 

 also realised more fully than ever that the best way to 

 get on with an Englishman is to stand up to him. The 

 same man, when firmly stood up to by the Indian, may 

 not only become his personal friend, but be substantially 

 improved thereafter in his ideas and manner. This matter 

 is important ; and we may later note one or two other 

 instances of it among the many which have arisen in 

 Bose's career. 



In consequence of this change of view of the Director, 

 Bose's appointment, by help of a special order from the 

 Government, was not only made permanent, but this 

 with retrospective effect. He therefore received his full 



