88 WHO'S WHO IN INDIA Scholarship, a distinction which falls to the lot of the best boy of the year. He took his Doctrate in 1887 but stayed an additional year that he might be thoroughly imbued with the spirit of original investigation. In 1899 he returned to India and was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Presidency College, Calcutta. In addition to his duties as a teacher in this College Dr. Ray has found great delight in the work of original research. In 1894 he read before the Asiatic Society his first paper on original research, viz,, that on Chemical Examination of the Indian fats and oils. In 1895 he began his memorable researches on mercury and nitric acid and it was this work which picked him out in the forefront. The discovery by him of mercurious nitrite, the first product of the action of nitric acid on mercury was spoken of in glowing terms not only in India and England but the German savants were equally surprised at the same, all the more, as distin- guished chemists like Peligot, Nemaun and Lang were unsuc- cessful in their attempts. Since then he has published some 60 papers on the nitrites of mercury, etc., in the journal of the London Chemical Society. In 1904-05, he proceeded to Eng- land on deputation and made a " holy pilgrimage " to all the centres of chemical activities, renewing and sometimes making new acquaintances with the chief chemists of London, Man- chester, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Dublin, E'aris, Berlin, Zurich, etc. The life of a chemist is the bare enumeration of his researches, but the life of this oriental savant is a little different. If anyone is to analyse his whole life he would be surprised by the most uneventful character of it but four land- marks stand prominent even in this life: (i) His devotion to the cause of science and education; (2) his labours in the bring- ing out of a History of the Hindu Chemistry in two volumes ; (3) the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical works and (4) perhaps the sublimest of all, his charity. Address: 91, Upper Circular Road, Calcutta.
