Aspects of History of Science

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The Asiatic Society has been regularly organizing workshops on different aspects of History of Science. In fact, fascinating core materials on the subject are available in the Journal of the Asiatic Society almost since its foundation in 1784. The Asiatic Researches, as the Journal of the Society used to be known then, was first published in 1788. Since then till the independence of the country, a very few specialized journals were available in the country where scientific papers and/or findings could be published. It is very interesting to note that the first paper of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose entitled On Polarisation of Electric Rays by Double Refracting Crystals was published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society in 1895. In 1917 Sir Leonard Rogers, who was a founder member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and its President from 1933 to 1935, presented his annual address Twenty year's Research on Kala-azar <-as the President of the Asiatic Society. Sir U. N. Brahmachari's Presidential address - The Conquest of Kala-azar and certain observations on the Chemotherapy of Malaria - was similarly published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society in 1928. Professor P.C. Mohalanobis, the father of Statistics in India and the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, published his paper-On Tests and Measures of Group Divergence commonly known as D squire Statistics in the Journal of the Society in 1930. Sir P. C.. Ray, Professor C. V. Raman, Professor S. K. Mitra, Professor M. N. Saha, Sir J. C. Ghosh, among others, did publish their pioneering works in the Journal till the first half of the last century. However, during second half of the last century, this trend tapered off because of the fact that a number of specialised journals came out in the country and elsewhere. In keeping with past tradition, the Society has focussed its attention on different aspects of History of Science.

The present volume, edited by Professor Naresh Chandra Datta and Dr. Tulika Sen, is the reprint of a monograph published earlier by the Asiatic Society and contains papers presented in the Workshop on History of Science held in 2004.

The Asiatic Society, the oldest learned academic institution in modern India, has completed more than two centuries of its glorious existence for the advancement of knowledge, The Asiatic Society has been interested in History of Science in some form or other from its very inception. In one of his foundation address to the members of the Society, Sir William Jones broadly defined the objectives of the Society as the study of Man and Nature, The bounds of its investigation will be the geographical limita of Asia", he said, "and within these limits its enquiries will be extended to whatever is performed by man or produced by nature." He placed equal emphasis on the study of history and other areas of humanities and various branches of Science and Technology Throughout the 19th century and till the end of the first half of the 20th, history of science formed a part of the oriental studies. During the 50's following a seminar on History of Science in South-East Asia held in Delhi under the joint auspices of the UNESCO and the Indian National Science Academy, a renewed interest in the study and research in history of science in India as a distinct branch of knowledge was generated. And this led eventually to the establishment of a National Commission for the Compilation of History of Science in India. A centre for History of Science was also established on January 15, 1985 at the Asiatic Society. The plans and programmes for which were drawn up by Professor Samarendra Nath Sen, the distinguished historian of Science with the help of his associate, Professor Santimay Chatterjee. One of the plans of the centre was to introduce a teaching course in the history of science leading to the M. Phil degree.

For reasons beyond its control, the teaching course could not be introduced for some time and it was only in 1994 the Society could introduce a one-year certificate course in history of Science for post graduate level students. This is the first time for reasons beyond its control, the teaching course could not be introduced for some time and it was only in 1994 the Society could introduce a one-year certificate course in history of Science for post graduate level students. This is the first time that such a course has been introduced in an academic institution in India, though a proposal for introducing a course in history of science in Indian Universities was made to the University Grants Commission in 1957 by the Indian Society for History of Science, But unfortunately not tangible progress could be made.

The Asiatic Society is pleased to publish the Aspects of History of Science, a multi-authored monograph as an output of the workshop held in 2004 on History of Science and Society in the Indian Context. We strongly belief that this set of articles may be found useful to the students and scholars all over the world as a basis for further studies in the area of History, Science and Society in the Indian context. This monograph has been ably edited by the Joint Course Coordinators Professor Naresh Ch. Datta, Biological Science Secretary and Professor Tulika sen, Anthropological Science Secretary of the Asiatic Society and assisted by Dr. Jagatpati Sarkar and other staff members of the Society. We thank them all. We also thank the experts, the teachers and scholars who have extended their wonderful support to run this workshop successfully.

**Contents and Sample Pages**