Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose, His Life and Speeches Part 15

The next ill.u.s.tration was to show how long plants took to feel shock and what time they took to recover. Like the great human system plants were subject to periodic conscianimal [_sic._, consciousness?] had their periods of sleep and awakening. The extra water pressure produced during sunset had nothing to do with true sleep. Plants, too, were subject to exaltation and depression and at certain hours of the day they were fully conscious and active while at other hours they were dormant and lazy. He showed by means of a chart that they were fast asleep between 6 and 9 in the morning and his humorous remark that in that respect they had taken a leaf from our modern society ladies provoked a great deal of laughter. A series of records were then shown to ill.u.s.trate the various degrees of plant consciousness, which were deeply appreciated by the audience.

Proceeding Dr. Bose said that plants were far more conscious of nature than human beings and described his experience how plants were sensitive even to pa.s.sing clouds, which produced on them a depressing effect. He spoke of the difference between thin and wiry grown plants and those that were stout and robust. In that respect they resembled again human beings and thin and wiry grown plants were far more susceptible of excitement than the others. They, too, needed rest and without it, they were flabby and depressed. A cartoon from the London "Punch" ent.i.tled "A successful Trial" was screened to the merriment of the audience, in which the Professor was humorously depicted by that journal, after his exposition before the Royal Inst.i.tute in London. He gave an ill.u.s.tration of the "Praying Palm of Faridpur" and the changes it exhibited to environment. All plants displayed similar power and these changes were no longer inscrutable. They had been brought within the realm of scrutability [_sic._] and could be recorded.

"PROTECTING" PLANTS

It was a mistake to suppose that when "protected" plants would thrive better. Mothers had a tendency to keep their children away from contact with the outside world with a view to "protect" them. He had placed a plant under a gla.s.s case and the effect of it was he had a gloated and effete specimen, flabby-looking in appearance and weary under adversity, they recovered sooner and their growth was healthy just as it evolved true manhood in men. It had been commonly believed that carbonic acid gas was conducive to plant growth. That was a great mistake. In sunshine, plants readily absorbed it; but it was no more true that plants thrived on CO_2, than did human beings. He ill.u.s.trated the effect of carbonic acid gas as well as oxygen. The latter was as much necessary for plants to thrive on as it was for them. Another ill.u.s.tration exhibited the effect of alcohol on plants and he declared amidst laughter that alcohol produced the same alternate maudlin depression and exaltation on plants that is to be observed on the human system. He said that this experiment had tickled the Americans a great deal and referred to a conversation he had with Mr. Bryan, who was a teetotaller, regarding alcohol given to plants. Some American papers had given characteristic headlines to introduce his lecture on the effect of stimulus to plants.

Another plant Desmodium which has accompanied him in his world tour was filmed on the screen. He spoke, next, of the apparatus which he had invented to record plant pulsation and the struggle they exhibited between life and death. Poisons had as much effect on plants as on men, and they could be revived by applying antidotes, this was ill.u.s.trated by another chart. Another point of interest dealt with by him was the effect of warm water on plants, and he gave an exposition of his discovery to show that plants died when placed in 60 degree (centigrade) warm water. He referred to the stupendous phenomenon of invisible writing by means of which the plant recorded its own evolution.

The lecture was listened to with profound interest and lasted for an hour. Mr. Setalvad proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the Chancellor for presiding at the meeting. Lord Willingdon, in acknowledging it, said that the vote of thanks was due to Sir Jagadis rather than to himself.

As he had antic.i.p.ated in the beginning, the lecture had proved absorbingly interesting and he was afraid Sir Jagadis's discoveries might be positively alarming when he next visited Bombay. He hoped that they would accord Sir Jagadis a hearty vote of thanks with "true Bombay cordiality." After a few suitable remarks by Sir Jagadis the meeting terminated.

--_Amrita Bazar Patrika_, 5-2-1918.

THE AUTOMATIC WRITING OF THE PLANT

On the 8th February 1918, Sir J. C. Bose delivered the following discourse on 'The Automatic Writing of the Plant,' at the Bose inst.i.tute:--

Sir J. C. Bose spoke of two different ways of gaining knowledge, the lesser way is by dwelling on superficial differences, the mental att.i.tude which makes some say 'Thank G.o.d I am not like others:' The other way is to realise an essential unity in spite of deceptive appearance to the contrary. He had recently been on a visit to the western Presidency, he went there as a stranger, but he has come back with a pang at parting from kindreds. Never in his life did he realise so vividly as now the great unity that drew together all who regarded India as their home and place of work. They were bound to each other by mutual ties of dependence. He had for many years been engaged in discovering community in physical manifestations of life. Now he has realised an abiding unity in the highest manifestations of human life, in community of thoughts and ideals.

In the wide expanse of life itself few things would appear so strikingly different as the life activities in plants and in animals. But if in spite of the seeming differences, it could be proved that these life activities are fundamentally similar, this would undoubtedly const.i.tute a scientific generalisation of very great importance. It would then follow that the complex mechanism of the animal machine, that baffled us so long, need not remain inscrutable for all time, for the intricate problems of animal physiology would then naturally find their solution in the study of corresponding problems under simpler conditions of vegetative life. That would mean an enormous advance in the science of physiology, of agriculture, of medicine, and even of psychology.

How then are we to know what unseen changes take place within the plant?

The only conceivable way would be, if that were possible, to detect and measure the actual response of the organism to a definite testing blow.

When an animal receives an external shock it may answer in various ways; If it has voice, by a cry, if dumb, by the movement of its limbs. The external shock is the stimulus, the answer of the organism is the response. If we can make it give some tangible response to a questioning shock, then we can judge the condition of the plant by the extent of the answer. In an excitable condition the feeblest stimulus will evoke an extraordinarily large response, in a depressed state even a strong stimulus evokes only a feeble response, and lastly, when death has overcome life, there is an abrupt end of the power to answer at all.

Prof. Bose then explained the principle and action of his apparatus by which the plant attached to it is automatically excited by successive stimuli which are absolutely constant. In answer to this the plant makes its own responsive records, goes through its own period of recovery, and embarks on the same cycle over again without a.s.sistance from the observer at any point. In this way the effect of changed external conditions is seen recorded in the script made by the plant itself.

It has been thought that plants like mimosa alone were sensitive. But Sir J. C. Bose's apparatus demonstrated the unsuspected fact that every plant and every organ of every plant answered to a shock by a contractile spasm, as by an animal muscle. If perception of feeble stimulus be taken as a measure of ascent in the scale of life then the superiority of man must be established on a foundation more secure than sensibility. The most sensitive organ by which we can detect electric current is our tongue. An average European can perceive a current as feeble as six micro-amperes, a micro-ampere being a millionth part of the electric unit. Possibly the tongue of a Celt is more excitable, and I have no doubt that my countrymen can easily boast the Celt in this particular test. But the plant mimosa is ten times more excitable than the tongue of an advocate in this province.

Professor Bose then showed how identical were the effects of light, warmth and various drugs on the plant and animal. These experiments bring the plant much nearer than we ever thought. We find that it is not a mere ma.s.s of vegetative growth, but that its every fibre is instinct with sensibility. We are able to record the throbbings of its pulsating life, and find these wax and wane according to the life conditions of the plant, and cease in the death of the organism. In these and many other ways the life reactions in plant and man are alike, and thus through the experience of the plant, it may be possible to alleviate the sufferings of man.

--_Amrita Bazar Patrika_, 9-2-1918.

CONTROL OF NERVOUS IMPULSE

At the first anniversary meeting of the Bose inst.i.tute, held on the 30th November 1918, Sir J. C. Bose gave the following discourse on his recent discoveries relating to the question of control of nervous impulse, under the Presidency of His Excellency Lord Ronaldshay, Governor of Bengal.

It is one of the greatest of all mysteries how we are put in connection with the external world: how blows from without are felt within. Our organs of sensation are like so many antennae radiating in various directions and picking up messages of many kinds. All of these, when a.n.a.lysed to their utmost, consist of shock effects on different chords.

An extremely feeble stimulus is below the limit of perception, a moderate stimulus transmits excitation, which is perceived as sensation of not an unpleasant character, but the tone of sensation becomes painful when the excitation is very intense. Our sensation is thus coloured by the intensity of the nervous excitation that reaches the central organ. We are subject to human limitations, through the imperfection of our senses on the one hand, and over-sensibility on the other. There are happenings which elude us because the impinging stimulus is too feeble to waken our senses; the external shock, on the other hand, may be so intense as to fill our life with pain.

Since we have no direct power over the shocks which come to us from the outside world, is it possible to control the nervous impulse so that it should be exalted in one case, and inhibited or obliterated in the other? Does advance of science hold any such possibility? This question is plainly fraught with high significance.

PROBLEM OF CONTROL OF NERVOUS IMPULSE

Before proceeding further it will be necessary first to obtain a clear idea of the function of a nervous tissue and its characteristics; secondly the manner, in which the nervous impulse is propagated; and lastly, we have to discover some compulsive force by which the impulse may be intensified or inhibited during transit. The nerve circuit may be liked to an electric circuit, and invisible impulse bringing about response in the indicator, be it the brain or the galvanometer. In the electric circuit the conducting power of the metallic wire is constant, and the intensity of the electric impulse depends on the intensity of the electric force applied. If the conducting power of the nerve were constant then the intensity of the nervous impulse and its resulting sensation would depend inevitably on the intensity of the shock from outside which starts the impulse. In that case the possibility of the modification of our sensation would be an impossibility. But there may be a likelihood that the power of conduction possessed by a nerve is not constant but capable of change. Should this surmise prove to be correct then we arrive at the momentous conclusion that sensation itself is modifiable, whatever the external stimulus. For the modification of nervous impulse there remains only one alternative; namely, some power to render the vehicle a very much better conductor or a non-conductor according to particular requirements. We require the nervous path to the supra-conducting to have the impulse due to feeble stimulus brought to sensory prominence. When the external blow is too violent we would block the painful impulse by rendering the nerve a non-conductor.

Under narcotic the nerve becomes paralysed and we can by its use save ourselves from pain. But such heroic measures are to be resorted to in extreme cases, as when we are under the surgeon's knife. In actual life we are confronted with unpleasantness without notice. A telephone subscriber has an evident advantage, for he can switch off the connection when the message begins to be unpleasant. Statesmen or politicians have been known to cultivate convenient deafness; but that is a mere pretence. The unpleasant things heard, would still continue to rankle. It is not every one that has the courage of Mr. Herbert Spencer who openly resorted to his ear plugs whenever his visitor became tedious.

The lecturer then explained that the propagation of nervous impulse is a phenomenon of transmission of molecular disturbance. It occurred to him that the transmission could be controlled if he succeeded in discovering a compulsive force which would confer on the conducting particles two opposite molecular dispositions, one of which would exalt and the other resist the impulse. His experiments were first conducted with the primitive type of nerve which he had previously discovered in plants. In full confirmation of his theory, he succeeded in conferring on the nervous tissue two opposite dispositions. Under favourable disposition the nerve is rendered supra-conducting; subliminal stimulus now becomes fully perceived. Under the opposite molecular disposition the violent impulse due to excessive stimulus becomes weakened or arrested during transit, and the plant remains quite unaffected by the external shock.

The lecturer has in his previous works demonstrated the unity of life-reactions in the plant and animal. A climax is now reached when by the application of identical treatment he is able to confer alternately on the same animal nerve, supra-conducting or non-conducting property at will. Under a particular molecular disposition the experimental frog perceived and responded to stimulus which had hitherto been below its threshold of perception. Under the opposite disposition violent tetanic spasm caused by the irritant salt applied to the nerve became at once quelled. The normal property of the nerve was at once restored on the withdrawal of the predisposing force.

MAN VICTORIOUS OVER CIRc.u.mSTANCE

Thus by the control of molecular disposition of the conducting nerve, nervous impulse, and the resulting sensation may become profoundly modified. The external is not so overwhelmingly dominant, and man is not to be merely pa.s.sive in the hands of destiny. There is a latent power which would raise him above the terrors of his inimical surroundings. It remains with him that the channels through which the outside world reach him should, at his command be widened or become closed. It may thus be possible for him to catch those indistinct messages that had hitherto eluded him or he may withdraw within himself, so that in his inner realm, the jarring notes and the din of the world should no longer affect him.

The whole audience heard the discourse with spell bound interest. The Indian Scientist came to that realisation by experiments at which the Indian Jogis of yore arrived by intuition. Following an absolutely original line inventing his own apparatus of the most simple yet subtle delicacy and having constructed them by the hands of Indian artisans, working without collaborators and with the smallest modic.u.m of recognition by his fellow scientists, he has pursued his investigation to a result which has been a revelation to the whole world. Dr. Bose has proved that man and plant are one body and life in their physiology, in their vital habits and nervous responses. He has clearly demonstrated that nervous life in the plant responds to the same stimuli as in human beings. He has established between animal and plant a unity of incipient mind. The plant not only lives and dies, wakes and sleeps but it makes the responses which in animal would be pleasure and pain.

Dr. Bose has made a great step towards the unification of knowledge. A bridge has been built between man and inert matter. Even if we take Dr.

Bose's experiments with metals in conjunctions with his experiments on plants, we may hold it to be practically proved for the thinker that Life in various degrees of manifestation and organisation is omnipresent in Matter and is no foreign introduction or accidental development, but was always that to be evolved.

The ancient thinkers knew well that life and mind exist everywhere in essence and vary only by the degree and manner of their emergencies and functionings. All is in all and it is out of complete involution that the complete evolution progressively appears. It is only appropriate that for a descendant of the race of ancient thinkers who formulated that knowledge, should be reserved the privilege of initiating one of the most important among the many discoveries by which experimental science is confirming the wisdom of his forefathers.

--_Amrita Bazar Patrika_, 4-12-1918.

MARVELS OF GROWTH AS REVEALED BY THE "MAGNETIC CRESCOGRAPH"

[Sir J. C. Bose has recently invented the "Magnetic" crescograph. It is a supersensitive instrument and the very high magnification obtained by it surpa.s.ses all existing appliances. By this instrument, phenomena hitherto beyond the reach of investigation can now be studied with great precision. It shows ultra-microscopic changes inducted in a growing organism even by a puff of smoke or a gentle breeze, by a pa.s.sing cloud or fleeting brightness. This super magnifier was exhibited for the first time by Sir J. C. Bose before an appreciative gathering 10-1-1919. A number of lady students, professors, lawyers, doctors and several eminent personages gathered to hear the great Indian scientist.]

In his Discourse on the above subject on Friday, Sir J. C. Bose ill.u.s.trated how the limitations imposed on the advance of science by the imperfection of our senses, may stimulate the invention of supersensitive apparatus which reveals to us the existence of phenomena hitherto unknown. Thus the invention of the microscope from a simple lens magnifying 3 or 4 times into progress up to 1500 diameters has given birth to new sciences. But still higher magnification is demanded in unravelling the mystery of movements a.s.sociated with the simplest type of life as seen in plants. Greatest potentiality in life is often latent; the gigantic banian tree grows out of a thing which is smaller than the mustard seed. Within the seed-coat the dormant life remains in safety, protected from dangers outside. The seeds may thus be subjected without harm to cold so intense as will freeze mercury into solid and air into liquid. Winds and hurricanes scatter the seed of life and the cocoa-nut rides the tumultuous waves till anch.o.r.ed safe in an island yet to be inhabited. In due season there begins a series of most astonishing transformations; the latent life wakens, and the seedling begins to grow. The root turns downwards and the shoot upwards.

Underground, the root winds its way round stones and obstacles towards moist places. Above ground the stem bends as if in search of light.

Tendrils twine about a support. These visible movements are striking enough, but within the unruffled exterior of the plant body there are others, energetic and incessant, which escape our scrutiny. The bending of a growing organ towards or away from stimulus must be due to unequal growth on two sides of the organ, a r.e.t.a.r.dation of growth on the proximal or acceleration on the distant sides. Various theories have been advanced which have proved inadequate. For the identical stimulus of gravity produces one kind of curvature in the root and the very opposite in the shoot. The possibility of direct experimental investigation has been frustrated by the excessive slow rate of growth rendering accurate measurement impossible.

THE SLOWNESS OF GROWTH

The movement of growth is two thousand times less rapid than the place of the proverbially slow-footed snail. Taking the average annual growth in height of a tree to be 5 ft., it will take a tree a thousand years to cover a distance of a mile. We take a piece of 2 ft. in the course of half a second, during the interval plant grows through a length of 1,100,000 part of an inch or half the length of a wave of light. For investigation on the effect of external conditions on growth we have to measure even a fraction of that excessively small length.

The peasant has eagerly watched the growth of his plants on which his own life and the world's depend and, even realised something of its vicissitudes, so the vegetable physiologist has here one of the many problems of his science. The invention of growth-measuring instruments has thus been one of his main endeavours. He has. .h.i.therto succeeded by the use of levers with unequal arms to obtain a magnification of about 20 times, and even then it takes many hours for growth to become perceptible; owing to the practical impossibility of maintaining the external conditions constant for so many hours, the results of measurement of growth become vitiated. It is therefore necessary to produce a magnification so high that growth should become measurable in less than a minute. The first improvement effected by the lecturer, now some fourteen years ago, was his Optical Lever, which at once raised the magnification from 20 to 1000 times, an advance which at the time seemed to many incredible, but it is at length coming into use in advanced laboratories in Europe.

THE RECORDING CRESCOGRAPH