April 16, 1903] 



NA TURE 



569 



there have been two specialists, each charged with investi- 

 gations similar in character. Finally, the appointment of 

 an Inspector General of Agriculture adds to the staff an 

 official with a close interest in all the branches of science 

 which bear upon the agricultural conditions of the country. 



(5) The subject has received the careful consideration of 

 the Governor General in Council, and he has arrived at the 

 conclusion that a central authority is needed to ensure that 

 the work of scientific research is distributed to the best 

 advantage, that each investigator confines his researches 

 to the subject with which he is most capable of dealing, and 

 that energy is not dissipated by the useless duplication of 

 inquiries or misdirected by a lack of inter-departmental co- 

 operation. The various departments of science are not self- 

 contained, but closely interlinked. Agriculture needs the 

 aid of botany, botany the assistance of geology, geology of 

 chemistry, and an endeavour should be made to combine the 

 different departments in a system of mutual assistance. 

 The Governor General in Council has no wish to imply that 

 there has been any disposition on the part of one depart- 

 ment to hold itself aloof from another. But the institution 

 of an authorised scheme of mutual assistance will result in 

 a closer cooperation for the purposes of effective research 

 than has been possible in the past. 



(6) A further reason exists for the constitution of a central 

 advisory authority. Though greater prominence has been 

 given in recent years to the practical or economic side of 

 inquiry, its importance is not even yet always adequately 

 recognised. The Government of India fully realise the 

 great value of the work effected in the past by their scien- 

 tific departments, in the shape of scientific exploration and 

 systematic work, and they recognise that such inquiries 

 must necessarily precede any attempt towards the solution 

 of more practical problems. But in those departments there 

 has been a not unnatural tendency to give the claims of 

 abstract science precedence over the more practically im- 

 portant demands of economic or applied science. In making 

 these remarks, the Governor General in Council has no 

 desire to underrate the importance of original research for 

 purely scientific objects, or to assert that the practical 

 application of science should be the sole aim of technical 

 departments. It is his wish that the high reputation which 

 has been gained by more than one branch of scientific work 

 in India should be maintained, and that the Indian depart- 

 ments should retain touch with scientific progress in Europe 

 and America. But in view of the fact that the Indian 

 Government own the largest landed estate in the world, that 

 the prosperity of the country is at present mainly dependent 

 upon agriculture, that its economic and industrial resources 

 have been very imperfectly explored, and that the funds 

 available for scientific work are limited, the importance of 

 practical research is preeminent, and a central authority, 

 which can speak with knowledge upon scientific questions, 

 will be in a position to enforce the repeated declarations 

 of the Government of India on the subject. 



(7) The Governor General in Council proposes therefore 

 to constitute a Board of Scientific Advice comprising the 

 heads of the Meteorological, Geological, Botanical, Forest, 

 Survey, Agricultural, and Veterinary Departments, together 

 with such other scientific authorities as may from time to 

 time be invited by the Government of India to serve upon 

 it. These latter will include scientific officers in the service 

 of the Imperial and Provincial Governments whose special 

 attainments render their assistance desirable. The Govern- 

 ment of India hope that the Trustees of the Indian Museum, 

 who, as custodians of the national scientific collections, have 

 always shown an active interest in the prosecution of scien- 

 tific work, will associate themselves with the scheme, and 

 they will be addressed separately on the subject. The 

 Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of 

 Revenue and Agriculture, to which the scientific depart- 

 ments concerned are administratively subordinate, will be 

 ex-ofjicio President of the Board, and the Secretary to the 

 Board will be selected, subject to the approval of Govern- 

 ment, by the Board from amongst its members. The Board 

 will review and advise generally upon the operations of the 

 departments, with due attention to the' economic side of 

 their work, and will serve as a referee in all matters con- 

 nected with the organisation of scientific inquiry in this 

 country. It will annually receive and discuss the proposals 



NO. 1746, VOL. 67] 



of each departmental head in regard to the programme for 

 investigation in his department. In cases where inter- 

 departmental cooperation is necessary, it will rest with the 

 Board to advise as to the lines on which mutual assistance 

 should be given and the department to which the inquiry 

 should primarily appertain. Where the proposed investi- 

 gation falls exclusively within the domain of a particular de- 

 partment, the function of the Board will be confined to 

 examining and criticising the proposals. It is not intended 

 that the directing influence of the Board should in any way 

 weaken departmental executive control or responsibility, and 

 the precise manner in which, and the agency by which, any 

 required information is to be collected or investigation 

 carried out must be left to the heads of the departments 

 concerned. 



(8) The Board will submit annually to Government a 

 general programme of research which will embody the 

 proposals of departmental heads in so far as its subjects 

 are to be exclusively dealt with in one department, and its 

 own proposals in cases where two or more departments are 

 to cooperate. At the end of the year it will submit to 

 Government a brief review of the results obtained in all 

 lines of scientific investigation, based upon the annual de- 

 partmental reports and upon any papers published by 

 individuals. Generally, the Board will act as an advisory 

 committee to the Government of India and as an inter- 

 mediary between the Government of India and their scien- 

 tific officers in respect of all questions of technical research 

 which are dealt with in the Department of Revenue and 

 Agriculture. The Royal Society have already been good 

 enough to offer their aid in furthering scientific work in 

 India, and their invaluable advice .and assistance will be 

 freely invoked by the Board now constituted. 



(9) To enable the Board to carry out the duties which are 

 assigned to it, the Governor General in Council considers 

 it desirable that its members should meet as a collective body 

 at stated intervals for the purposes of discussion. It will 

 probably be ordinarily sufficient to hold two meetings a 

 year ; one to consider the work of the past year and pro- 

 posals for the progiamme of the coming year in each de- 

 partment ; the other to settle finally those programmes 

 subject to the approval of Government. The most con- 

 venient dates for holding these meetings will be settled in 

 consultation with the Board. 



(1) The Surveyor General of India. 



(2) The Inspector General of Forests. 



(3) The Director, Geological Survey of India. 



(4) The Meteorological Reporter to the Government of 



India and Director General of Indian Observ- 

 atories. 



(5) The Inspector General, Civil Veterinary Department. 



(6) The Director, Botanical Survey of India. 



(7) The Reporter on Economic Products to the Govern- 



ment of India. 



(8) The Inspector General of Agriculture in India. 



(9) The Director General of Archaeology in India. 



(10) The Chief Inspector of Mines in India. 



(10) Ordered, that the Resolution be communicated to all 

 Departments of the Government of India and Local Govern- 

 ments and Administrations for information and to the De- 

 partments above noted for information and guidance ; and 

 that it be published in the Supplement to the Gazette of 

 India. 



SOLAR PROMINENCE AND SPOT 

 CIRCULATION, 1872-1901. 1 



T N previous numbers of this Journal (vol. Ixvi. p. 248, and 

 ■^ vol. lxvii. pp. 224 and 377) references have been made 

 to the connection between solar, meteorological and mag- 

 netic changes, and some of the results obtained from a 

 reduction of the solar prominences as observed by Prof. 

 Tacchini at Rome were described. 



' Abstract of a paper recently read before the Royal Society by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, K.C.E., F.R.S., and William J. S. Lockyer, M.A., Ph.D., 

 F.R.A.S. 



