INDIAN NATIONAL LIFE 91 



among the first to admire the men who have pursued truth 

 as the* hermit pursues piety, I say it should not be forgotten 

 that science applied to the practical problems that call for 

 solution yields an abundant fruit of pure truth. And I go 

 further than that and I say, speaking of a country like this, 

 that the first claim on high science is for research directed 

 to real and urgent national problems. When I landed in 

 this country and took the long journey from Bombay to Lahore, 

 two things were constantly coming to my mind I am now 

 speaking as a chemist agriculture and public health. Are 

 not those the two great scientific interests of this country? 

 When you think of the death-rate and the scourges to which 

 the land is subjected, when you think that they are largely 

 preventable, you will surely admit that the first claim upon 

 science is that it should be directed to the amelioration of 

 such things as these. When you realize that in India nine 

 out of ten are engaged in agriculture, when you see how 

 much of the agriculture of this country is primitive, then 

 surely also one of the first claims made upon science by this 

 country will be the improvement of agriculture. Research 

 will not necessarily create industry. That is a great mistake. 

 It will not do so. It will add to industries already existing. 

 It will give them new life. It will give them expansion and 

 development, but research pure and simple will not immedi- 

 ately create industries, will not call into life occupations that 

 are not already being pursued in some primitive way. 



The only point on which I may touch very briefly, before 

 I conclude, is this, I have had to ask myself since I have 

 been in India what is the value of science teaching that is 

 going on. There is a very great deal of it. Is it the best 

 that could be done ? Is it the right thing ? Is there some- 

 thing else worth doing? Is there any other direction to 

 which the effort might be turned? I do not want to say 

 too much. I hope when I get home to prepare some state- 



