[xxx Proceedings of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal. [N.S., XVII, 
life devoted to science. Generally speaking our best scientific 
men work on a mere pittance, for the love of their work, 
but however beneficial their results may be, they usually die 
else. Scientific enquiry is noble in itself and is its own reward. 
Nevertheless if science is to be of practical use to the world, 
scientific investigators should be duly encouraged and honoured 
and not left to starve. The prospects of India are unlimited 
if its unfathomable resources be developed by discoveries made 
by scientific research. 
here are signs that the application of science to produc- 
tive industry is daily increasing in India, but we require more 
scientific men and industrial chemists, and this Congress can 
at this opportune moment give an impetus to the policy by 
which this want can be met. 
We are grateful to Lord Chelmsford’s Government for the 
active interest it has taken in establishing research institutes, 
both Imperial and Provincial, the investigations and results of 
which will be available to the industries concerned. Of course, 
fully laid, there can be no applied science. Real progress 
comes from the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Not 
infrequently a research which has been undertaken in the inte- 
rest of pure science has proved to be of the greatest value 
capable of vast development; but the eople have not ye 
been educated up to taking full advantage of scientific methods 
of cultivation. The world is in need of more food and more 
taw materials for industries. The prospects of increased agri- 
cultural production are almost unlimited. The possibilities of 
improvement by scientific cross-breeding on Mendelian lines 
have been fully shown, but little has yet been done, I believe. 
to study the way in which, and the reasons for which, plants 
produce the valuable products for which we cultivate them, 
though much has been done to facilitate the study of the growth 
of plants by the researches of my distinguished friend, Sir 
J. C. Bose, F.R.S. The work along a combination of such lines 
as these, though it may take a long time, offers almost unlimited 
possibilities. The publication and distribution of the papers 
read in this Congress on this subject should be undertaken free 
of all cost. This Science Congress is a co-operative organisa- 
