Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray : a life. 2. Scientific thoughts of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray. 3. Sixty years of the Indian Chemical Society: its growth and development. 4. Swadeshi enterprise. 5. Contribution to chemistry. Conclusion. Appendices: 1. Varying valency of platinum with respect to mercaptanic radicles -- Part II. 2. Complexes of Antimony Halides with Sulphonium Halides. 3. Varying valency of gold with respect to mercaptanic radicles. 4. On a new series of double sulphates of the copper-magnesium group and the phosphonium bases -- Part I. 5. Studies on the complexes of the chlorides of gold with organic sulphides.

"In the history of the interface between science and nationalism, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray figures prominently. He is particularly to be remembered as he rose from an ordinary middle class background to become the father of the Indian School of Chemistry. He was not one of her majesty's obedient servants. While he was doing his M.Sc. as a Gilchrist Scholar at the University of Edinburgh in mid 1880s, he had the courage to publish a book, before the mutiny arraigning British Rule in that period. He was much appreciated by the British Public and Parliamentarians who were contemplating reform of Indian administration under the crown. After the D.Sc., the first in chemistry by an Indian at that university, he came back to India and joined presidency college or a professor of chemistry after a grin struggle. He was a tireless scholar. Along with heavy teaching load, he carried out his valuable research in chemical compounds with a team of young researchers." (jacket)