Plants,' 'On an enquiry into the cause of Automatic Movements.'

"These new contributions" made by Dr. Bose on Plant Response "were regarded as of such great importance that the Royal Society showed its special appreciation by recommending them to be published in their Philosophical Transactions. But the same influence, which had hitherto stood in his way, triumphed once more, and it was at the very last moment that the publication was withheld. The Royal Society, however, informed him that his results were of fundamental importance, but as they were so wholly unexpected and so opposed to the existing theories, that they would reserve their judgment until, at some future time, plants themselves could be made to record their answers to questions put to them. This was interpreted in certain quarters here as the final rejection of Dr. Bose's theories by the Royal Society and the limited facilities which he had in the prosecution of his researches were in danger of being withdrawn."²⁰

HE BUILT HIS LIFE ON THE ROCK OF FAITH

But these difficulties—sufficient to crush many a spirit—could hardly quench the ardour of his burning soul, which was 'hungering and thirsting' for the establishment of a truth in which he had a firm Faith. Though the surges would beat against him, he would not give way. With the true spirit of a Sadhak, he devoted himself to the realisation of the great dream of his life. And, for the next ten years, the one tap, jap and aradhana of his life—the one all-engrossing idea of his mind—was how to make the plant give testimony by means of its own autograph.

PUBLICATION OF "PLANT RESPONSE"

Though his researches did not find an outlet, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, he did not lose heart. He brought out, in April 1906, a systematic treatise—"The Plant Response as a Means of Physiological Investigation"—in which he incorporated the results of his investigations on plant life.

ADOPTS A NEW METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

Hitherto Dr. Bose detected the various excitatory effects of plants by means of mechanical response. Being now confronted with opposition, he turned his attention to the finding of corroboration of the various results, which he had already obtained, by some other method of investigation. And for this he employed the method of electric response. He found that the results obtained by this new method of inquiry corroborated those already obtained by him by the old method. Emboldened by this corroboration, he next proceeded to extend this new method of inquiry by means of electric response into the field of Animal Physiology with a view to explain responsive phenomena in general on the consideration of that fundamental molecular reaction which occurs even in inorganic matter.'²¹

RESULT OF THE INVESTIGATION

Dr. Bose found, in the plant as well as in the animal, "a similar series of excitatory effects, whether these be exhibited mechanically or electrically. Both alike are responsive, and similarly responsive, to all the diverse forms of stimulus that impinge upon them. We ascend, in the one case as in the other, from the simplicities of the isotropic to the complexities of the anisotropic; and the laws of these isotropic and anisotropic responses are the same in both. The responsive peculiarities of epidermis, epithelium, and gland; the response of the digestive organ, with its phasic alterations; and the excitatory electrical discharge of an anisotropic plate, are the same in the plant as in the animal. The plant, like the animal, is a single organic whole, all its different parts being connected, and their activities co-ordinated, by the agency of those conducting strands which are known as nerves. As in the plant nerve, moreover, so also in the animal, stimulation gives rise to two distinct impulses, exhibiting themselves by two-fold mechanical and electrical indications of opposite signs.... The dual qualities or tones known to us in sensation, further, are correspondent with those two different nervous impulses, of opposite signs, which are occasioned by stimulation. These two sensory responses—positive and negative, pleasure and pain—are found to be subject to the same modifications, under parallel conditions, as the positive and negative mechanical and electrical indications with which they are associated. And finally, perhaps, the most significant example for the effect of induced anisotropy lies in that differential impression made by stimulus on the sensory surfaces, which remains latent, and capable of revival, as the memory-image. In this demonstration of continuity, then, it has been found that the dividing frontiers between Physics, Physiology, and Psychology have disappeared."²²

CLASH WITH CURRENT VIEWS

The results, which Dr. Bose obtained from actual experiments, clashed, however, with the theories in vogue. The reactions of different issues were hitherto regarded as special differences. As against this, a continuity is shown to exist between them. Thus, nerve was universally regarded as typically non-motile; its responses were believed to be characteristically different from those of muscle. Dr. Bose, however, has shown that nerve is indisputably motile and that the characteristic variations in the response of nerve are, generally speaking, similar to those of the muscle.

It was customary to regard plants as devoid of the power to conduct true excitation. Dr. Bose had already shown that this view was incorrect. He now showed, by experiment, that the response of the isolated vegetal nerve is indistinguishable from that of animal nerve, throughout a large series of parallel variations of condition. So complete, indeed, is the similarity between the responses of plant and animal, found, of which this is one instance, that the discovery of a given responsive characteristic in one case proves a sure guide to its observation in the other, and the explanation of phenomenon, under the simpler conditions of the plant, is found fully sufficient for its elucidation under the more complex circumstances of the animal. Dr. Bose found 'differential excitability' is widely present as a factor in determining the character of special responses and showed that many anomalous conclusions, with regard to the response of certain animal tissues, had arisen from the failure to take account of the 'differential excitability' of anisotropic organs. Hitherto Pfluger's Law of the polar effects of currents was supposed to rest on secure foundations. But Dr. Bose showed that Pfluger's Law was not of such universal application as was supposed. He demonstrated that, above and below a certain range of electromotive intensity, the polar effects of currents are precisely opposite to those enunciated by Pfluger.

SENSATION

It was supposed that nervous impulse, which, must necessarily form the basis of sensation, was beyond any conceivable power of visual scrutiny. But Dr. Bose showed that this impulse is