Marcu IT, 1915| 
NATURE 
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lowing subjects will be dealt with, among others :— 
German Science, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson; German 
Philosophy, Prof. A. D. Lindsay; Political Philosophy 
and Politics, Prof. D. H. Macgregor; German 
History and Character, Prof. R. Lodge; Modern In- 
ventions, V. E. Johnson; Electricity, W. H. McCor- 
mick; Engineering, G. Knox. Longmans and Co.— 
The Development and Present Position of Biological 
Chemistry, Prof. F. G. Hopkins; The Polysaccharides, 
A. R. Ling; Colloids, W. B. Hardy; Respiratory Ex- 
change in Animals, Dr. A. Krogh; Protamines and 
Histones, Dr. A. Kossel; Organic Compounds of 
Arsenic and Antimony, Dr. G. T. Morgan; Lecithin 
and Allied Substances, Dr. H. Maclean; The Orna- 
mental Plant Pigments, A. G. Perkin; Chlorophyll 
and Hzmoglobin, H. J. Page (Monographs on Bio- 
chemistry); Electric Waves, Prof. G. W. Pierce; The 
Emission of Electricity from Hot Bodies, Prof. O. W. 
Richardson; Colloidal Solutions, Prof. E. F. Burton; 
Atmospheric Ionization, Prof. J. C. McLennan (Mono- 
graphs on Physics); Electrolytic Dissociation Theory, 
Dr. J. C. Philip; The Physical Chemistry of Flames, 
J. E. Coates; Clays, Dr. J. W. Mellor; Catalysis of 
Gas Reactions, D. L. Chapman; The Electro-Chem- 
istry of Non-Aqueous Solutions, J. W. McBain; Cata- 
lysis in Liquid Systems, Dr. G. Senter; Hydrates in 
Solution, Prof. E. A. Washburn; The Rare Earth 
Metals, Dr. J. F. Spencer; The Molecular Volumes of 
Liquid Chemical Compounds, G. Le Bas; Adsorption, 
\V. Lefebure and A. M. Williams (Monographs on 
Inorganic and Physical Chemistry). J. Nisbet and 
Co., Ltd.—The Operative Treatment of Chronic In- 
testinal Stasis, Sir W. A. Lane. Sir Isaac Pitman 
and Sons, Ltd.—Experimental Physics, A. Cowling. 
T. Fisher Unwin.—Rubber Recueil: Papers on 
Rubber, its Botany, Culture, Preparation, and Com- 
merce. 
THE SECOND INDIAN SCIENCE 
CONGRESS. 
HE second Indian Science Congress was held in 
Madras from January 14-16. It may be remem- 
berea that the suggestion to hold a Science Congress 
in India on the lines of the British Association was 
first made some three years ago by Prof. MacMahon, 
of Lucknow, and Prof. Simonsen, of Madras. The 
first meeting was held a year ago in Calcutta. 
The Hon. Surgeon-General W. B. Bannermann, 
I.M.S., C.S.I., was president this year, and delivered 
on address entitled **The Importance of a Knowledge 
of Biology to Medical, Sanitary, and Scientific Men 
Working in the Tropics.’’ After dealing with the 
scourges of India and recent research as to the nature 
of plague, malaria, and so on, the president re- 
marked :—‘‘It has been said that Indians have not 
yet distinguished themselves as they might in the 
domain of medical research. That is no doubt true, 
but the reason is not far to seek. The leisured and 
wealthy classes in India do not send their sons to our 
universities in any numbers, and when they do, cer- 
tainly not with the idea that they should spend the 
rest of their lives in pure research work. Let us hope 
they will do so some day. It is, therefore, among the 
sons of the middle class and often poor community 
that we must look for the men with capacity and 
inclination for such work. 
“But these are the very men who, not being in 
independent circumstances, must earn their living at 
the earliest possible time. They cannot, therefore, be 
expected to engage in scientific research which does 
not bring in money for daily bread or lead up to any 
permanent appointment. I would, therefore, appeal 
NO. 2367, VOL. 95| 

to our wealthy Indians to endow medical research, so 
that their poor but capable fellow-countrymen may 
have something to look forward to as reward for 
scientific toil. There are plenty of subjects for re- 
search which ought to be endowed, chairs in our 
medical schools and universities that ought to be estab- 
lished. All our Indian universities are at present mere 
skeletons; will no one here take up the rdle of beggar 
and. try to extract a few lakhs of rupees from the 
hoards of his wealthy and aristocratic friends? We 
know that there is plenty of money to be had when 
the heart of the nation is touched, as witness the 
magnificent response to the appeals made for war 
funds by H.E. the Viceroy and our own Governor of 
Madras. It must be your part, gentlemen of light 
and leading, to inspire similar enthusiasm in the good 
cause of university endowment. India wants to have, 
not only more chairs and lectureships endowed, but 
also research scholarships or fellowships established ; 
fellowships available for the student and the research 
worker, so that he may live in reasonable comfort, 
and be able to devote his whole energy to the work 
without anxiety for those depending on him. 
““T should like here to point out that we in Madras 
have made a beginning in this direction owing to the 
enlightened liberality of the Rajah of Pithapuram, who 
has presented 50,000 rupees for the expenses of an 
inquiry into diabetes, that fell disease which carries 
off so many of the best brain workers in this part of 
India. This is an example which I trust will often 
be followed in the future; it can lead to nothing but 
good for India and her peoples. 
“You will remember what our late beloved King- 
Emperor said with reference to tuberculosis :— If 
preventible, why not prevented?’ We may say the 
same of all these diseases—‘ They are preventible; 
why are they not prevented?’ For their prevention 
we require research and research workers. | Research 
workers are, after all, human beings and must be 
able to support themselves and their families by their 
labours. Who will come forward and help us? India 
needs this help, and we cannot look to Government 
for more than a small part of the money required. 
Government has done magnificent work of late years 
in establishing laboratories, and subsidising research 
all over the land, but much more is required. We 
want scholarships and fellowships with pensions for 
our best research workers. Endowments for this pur- 
pose will do more to keep alive the memory of the 
donors than the erection of chattrams or other tradi- 
tional forms of charity. It will not merely do this 
but will confer an inestimable benefit on the inarticu- 
late millions of India, who do not even know that 
they can be delivered from the various diseases that 
afflict them, and are scarcely conscious of their exist- 
ence. 
“ But we not only require research workers, we want 
an organisation that will help to educate the people 
in the ordinary rules of health. There should be in 
each presidency an official whose business it is to loolkk 
after the hygienic education of the common people. 
He should be in charge of a Bureau of Public Health, 
and his work should consist in preparing pamphlets 
and popular lectures with lantern-slide illustrations, 
which could be lent to lecturers who would undertake 
to itinerate in the villages and talk to the common 
people. He should organise classes for the teachers 
in our teachers’ colleges, and he should gather 
together and popularise information from every quar- 
ter. Such an official—who would have to be verv 
specially selected—would do an immense amount of 
good in educating the people, and without education 
we can hope for very little advance along the road to 
health. 

