Chemistry in India

Abstract

DR. M. O. FORSTER, in his address to the twelfth '-' Indian Science Congress, has preached a sermon which is not likely to be forgotten by those who were privileged to hear it or by those who have had an opportunity of reading it. Phrased in the happy manner which came to many as a revelation on the occasion of his address to Section B of the British Association at Edinburgh, it deals with numerous fundamental and intimate questions which are exer cising the minds of many thoughtful men and women at the present time. Probably no one can do this kind of thing quite so well as Dr. Forster, for he enhances his constitutional optimism by a flow of language which overwhelms the pessimist and carries the reader from the start to the finish along a smooth stream of pleasing rhetoric, past a countryside replete with all that is beautiful and satisfying, only dallying here and there to point out to the traveller some piece of Nature's handiwork more entrancing than the rest, or pausing to express a feeling of admiration for the manner in which scientific man has acquitted himself. It is only afterwards that the reader, whose mind, after his journey, will be in a pleasant condition of altruistic confusion, will wonder what it is all about. If he is an incorrigible pessimist, and wishes to retain his sanity, he will be well advised to let the first impression stand and not to examine more closely into the nature of the raw material from which Dr. Forster has woven his fascinating fabric. If, like most of us, he is a man of the world without any unhealthy bias towards extreme optimism or extreme pessimism, but, taking things much as he finds them, bestows neither premature praise nor expresses hasty condemnation, he will find much with which he can agree and a great deal to inspire thought and contemplation.