1917.] The Fourth Indian Science Congress. cxlvii 



of us fully appreciate the demand he quotes " that chemists 

 should talk common sense in the vulgar tongue. 



Should not such meetings as this be almost entirely de- 

 voted to the bringing together all the time of all the scientists 



present ? 



To quote the hitherto unborn words of the memorandum 

 to be presented by my Council to the Industries Commission, 

 " the isolation hitherto experienced by many scientific workers 

 in India has been one of the chief reasons of the comparatively 

 disappointing results." 



Now if you will bear with me a little longer. I propose to 

 revert to the question of research. 



I have alreadv drawn your attention to the frequent use 

 of the term ( research " in the Government budgets of the day. 

 Look only a few years back and you will hardly find it in these 

 documents. I have not been at any pains to measure the 

 increase of frequency in the general use of the word but it is 

 certain that it is now being continually brought before a public 

 few of whom concerned themselves much with the matter in 



the very recent past. 



Research is now alluded to as a perfectly simple operation. 



one even hears of men being " taught to research " ; newspapers 



speak of it in the lightest manner, whereas, in even my student 



days, it was spoken of with almost bated breath as indicating 



something to which only the best of us could look forward. 



something which few of us were ever likely to carry on witJi any 



hope of success. How well I remember my own first piece » 01 



original work and the months 1 spent in trying to ascertain tne 



structure of an organ little more than just visible to the naKea 



eve and the excitement of trying to unravel its extreme 



complexity. Mv impression is that the term was at that time 



used almost entirely in connection with the pure cience but 



even in this respect it is now quite a common thing tor a 



candidate for a higher degree in science to be expected to present 



a thesis based upon some original research and there is a 



Professor in this country who, so I have been told, expects ^and 



helps each of his students to « turn out a research to use a 



now common expression, every month. This mav or ma ^not 



be true. If true? it bespeaks considerable energy ; how Jar it 



makes for progress authorities in the subject alone can sa> -a 



any rate it may serve as an example of how things h^e 



Chan !htn again instead of there being one or two jjoljed^ 



Of institutions P«^ t K^^SS3 



are now quite common, bome 01 me^e ^ »« . 



to, including that which is perhaps the most ambitious of all 



The Carnegie Institution of Washington fo^ 



< Vunegie "to encourage in the broadest and most liberal manne. 



