An intellectual history of P.C. Ray’s papers on the nitrites of mercury

Abstract

Prafulla Chandra Ray’s contribution to the birth and development of an ‘Indian school of chemistry’ is well documented. But much of this recognition is situated in the realm of the social history of science. My aim in this essay is to view Ray through the lens of intellectual history and, above all, to shed fresh light on his actual contribution to the chemistry of the nitrites of mercury. Toward this end the focus here will be on five of Ray’s earliest papers on this family of compounds. We will see that the received narrative that Ray discovered mercurous nitrite is problematic. Examining the texts of his early papers it will be seen that Ray’s main contributions to the nitrites of mercury were (i) his apparently serendipitous discovery of a method of synthesizing mercurous nitrite; and (ii) the identification of and solutions to a series of interrelated Kuhnian normal science problems pertaining to this family of compounds. Furthermore (iii) the tools of intellectual history will help discern an underlying ‘plot structure’ informing the tenure of his work; and finally (iv) we will see that the centre-periphery model that attends the social historiography of science in colonial and post-colonial India plays no role in illuminating Ray’s early creative work on the nitrites of mercury.