cxlviii Journal of the\ Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIII, 



investigation, research and discovery, and the application of 

 knowledge to the improvement of mankind/ 5 



Perhaps the most striking and modern example of the use 

 of the term has been the name given to the recently appointed 

 Committee of the Privy Council — a Committee for Scientific 

 and Industrial Research. This has still more recently become a 

 separate Department of State and bids fair to influence pro- 

 foundly the position of research. I have based some of my 

 remarks upon the instructive report lately issued by the Advi- 

 sory Council of that Committee. 



As this is a Science Congress there are probably few present 

 to whom this will not be the merest commonplace, but there 

 seem to be many people in this and in other countries who 

 have not yet fully realized that the word " research " is now in 

 use in ways that differ greatly from one another. Almost all 

 investigation is now spoken of as research. This is doubtless 

 verbally correct ; but the motive directing the investigation and 

 the spirit in which it is carried out vary and it seems desirable 

 to emphasize the variations. 



The Oxford Dictionary defines a researcher as " one who 

 devotes himself to scientific or literary research (especially as 

 contrasted, with one whose time is chiefly occupied in teaching 

 or remunerative work)." The word " research " is now however 

 very widely used in connection with remunerative work, that is 

 to say, remunerative in a pecuniary sense. 



The Advisory Council to which I have just referred quote 

 the managing director of a manufacturing firm who stated that 

 he had no interest in research which did not produce results 

 within a year; it is evident that he meant results favourably 

 affecting his own pocket. 



Dr. Mees, the Director of the Research Laboratories of the 

 Eastman Kodak Company, no doubt takes a wider view. Hi^ 

 interesting paper has been published in Nature, but I take the 

 following from the Advisory Council's report : 



"In this paper Dr. Mees [joints out that three grades of 

 laboratory are needed by every manufacturer who wishes to 

 get the best results from the application of science to his busi- 

 ness. First he needs the ordinary routine or- works laboratory 

 for controlling the quality of raw materials, finished products 

 and processes. Next he should have what Dr. Mees calls an 

 industrial laboratory or, as it might perhaps be described, an 

 efficiency laboratory where improvements in products and in 

 processes tending to lessen cost of production and to introduce 

 new products on the market are worked out. Valuable as this 



type of work is, it does not go to the root of things ; the results 

 it can give are strictly limited. 



Fundamental developments in the whole subject in which 

 a firm is interested require something very different from the 



