
- Marci 24, 1923] 
NATURE 
413 
The Indian Science Congress. 
"T HERE is a real danger that the severe retrench- 
ment in public expenditure now in progress in 
India may lead to a curtailment of activities in those 
Sages in which such restriction is least desir- 
able, namely, the educational and scientific services 
devoted respectively to the training of workers and 
the investigation and development of the resources 
of the country. It was therefore very opportune 
that the presidential address clelivered at the Indian 
Science mgress which has completed its tenth 
session at Lucknow (January 8-13) emphasised the 
danger of apathy towards scientific knowledge and 
the immense problems bearing upon the welfare of 
India still awaiting solution. The president, Sir M. 
Visvesvaraya, himself a distinguished engineer and 
for many years the successful administrator of one of 
the largest and most progressive of the Indian States, 
rightly laid stress on the appalling state of destitution 
in which quite roo million out of the total population 
of 320 million in the country live, and the necessity 
for scientific research to increase the food supply, 
raise the standard of living, develop resources and 
train the people for citizenship. The address con- 
tained constructive suggestions towards stimulating 
research, promoting co-operation and concentration 
of effort and making the results of scientific work 
both in India and abroad more readily available. 
The sectional presidents dealt with a variety of 
‘subjects and their addresses were mostly of a general 
character. A few words regarding each must suffice, 
and those who are interested will no doubt refer 
to the complete report which will before long be 
ublished by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In his 
SS aeccse to the Section of Physics and Mathematics, 
Dr. S. K. Banerji reviewed recent theories regarding 
the origin of cyclones and discussed in particular the 
cyclones of the Indian seas, their origin, movements 
and disappearance. He favoured the view that 
counter currents having their origin in differences in 
temperatures over large geographic areas initiate the 
conditions that give rise to a system of gyrating 
winds in these storms, and that the condensation of 
water vapour supplies the energy necessary to main- 
‘tain them for a long period of time. Dr, Meldrum in 
a brief opening address to the Section of Chemistry 
made out a case for regarding the study of this 
subject as a liberalising influence. 
ties. Howard in her address to the Botanical 
Section dealt with the réle of plant physiology in 
agriculture and indicated a number of directions in 
which botanical research is desirable, such as the 
factors underlying high quality in agricultural pro- 
duce, the scientific interpretation of field experi- 
ments, the precise nature of various agricultural 
practices which come under the head of mutilations, 
‘the relations between physiology and the incidence 
of disease, and the basis of acclimatisation and change 
of seed. It was suggested that investigators in the 
Indian universities would find in these subjects many 
roblems of great scientific interest and practical 
importance. 
r. Pillai in his address to the Section of Agriculture 
epitomised recent researches in soil science. Prof. 
. Matthai gave the Section of Zoology a very interest- 
ing survey of recent oceanographical research, with 
special reference to the Indian Ocean, dealing very 
fully with the physical and chemical factors influenc- 
ing marine life and its distribution. Especially note- 
worthy was the reference to recent work on the 
colour of the light that penetrates by transmission 
and scattering into the depths of clear ocean water 
‘and its possible influence on the coloration of marine 
fauna and the development of their powers of vision. 
In the Section of Geology, Dr. Pascoe dealt with the 
No. 2786, VOL. 111 | 
paleography of Burma. Major Acton discoursed on 
the aims and economic value of medical research to 
the section devoted to this subject. The importance 
and interest attaching to the study of cultural anthro- 
pology was well emphasised by Dr. J. J. Modi in the 
section over which he presided. 
A general survey of the work of the Congress 
indicates that scientific investigations in India are 
to a considerable extent directed by the special needs 
of the country, and indeed perhaps even more atten- 
tion should be given than at present to subjects such 
as the chemistry of Indian natural products and 
problems arising therefrom. As an example of the 
kind of work being accomplished at present in this 
direction may be mentioned an interesting paper by 
J. L. Simonsen and M. Gopala Rao in which they 
showed that an exceedingly small proportion of 
pyrogallol added to Indian turpentine inhibits its 
tendency to oxidation for some months and thus adds 
greatly to its value. The practical side of research 
was also emphasised in a symposium of the Sections of 
Agriculture, Botany and Chemistry, in which a whole 
morning was devoted to the discussion of the nitrogen 
problem in Indian agriculture, and in another joint 
meeting, of the Sections of Botany and Agriculture, 
devoted to the improvement of fodder and forage in 
India. The same tendency is also found strongly - 
reflected in the proceedings of some of the sections, 
notably in those just mentioned and in the Section 
of Medical Research. 
Fundamental research as distinguished from applied 
science was strongly represented in the physics 
section of the Congress, and this was largely owing to 
the influence of the Calcutta school which has grown 
up during the past few years. Among some of the 
papers which dealt with new fields of research may 
be mentioned one by Mr. K. Seshagiri Rao on the 
scattering of light in fluids at low temperatures. A 
remarkable fact elicited by recent work (see Proc. 
Roy. Soc., November 1922, p. 159) is that the light 
transversely scattered in liquids which at ordinary 
temperatures is very imperfectly polarised increases 
in intensity and at the same time becomes more and 
more completely polarised as the temperature is raised 
towards the critical point. In Mr, Seshagiri Rao’s 
work, the study of the scattering is carried down to 
low temperatures, and an effect of the opposite kind 
is noticed. The quantitative results promise to 
throw light on the nature and magnitude of the 
thermal agitation of the molecules at low tempera- 
tures. An analogous investigation «by Mr. Lalji 
Srivastava on the scattering of light in crystals was 
also presented to the Congress. : 
There is scarcely space to refer here in detail to 
the numerous other papers dealing with subjects so 
varied as vortex motion in fluids, formation of 
ripple-marks, earthquake coda, chromatic emulsions, 
acoustics of the pianoforte, whispering galleries, 
theory of band-spectra, temperature ionisation of 
gases, and a-ray tracks in argon and helium, to 
mention only a selection, presented to the section at 
Lucknow. A reference may, however, be made to a 
paper which evoked a most animated discussion at 
the meeting, that is one by the writer putting forward 
a new theory of the well-known blue colour of clear 
ice in glaciers (see NATURE, January 6). In reply to 
some of the points raised, attention was directed to 
the very remarkable fact that during the process of 
artificial crystallisation involved in the manufacture 
of ice, the suspended matter originally present in the 
water is rejected by the crystals as they form and 
accumulates in a pocket. Ice which shows the 
blue opalescence is quite free from colloidal matter 
of any kind. C, V. RAMAN. 
