Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose | Page 6

a repetition of
responses seen in the inorganic" and that the phenomena of response
"are determined, not by the play of an unknowable and arbitrary vital
force, but by the working of laws that know no change, acting equally
and uniformly throughout the organic and inorganic matter."[14]
SECOND SCIENTIFIC DEPUTATION, 1900-01
In the year 1900, the International Scientific Congress was held, in
Paris. And Dr. J. C. Bose was deputed by the Government of India to
the Congress as a delegate from this country. Before the assembled
scientists, Dr. Bose delivered a remarkable address on the results of his
researches on the similarity of Response of Inorganic and Living
Substances to Electric stimulus ... 'De la gênêralitê de Phênomênes
Moleculairs produits par l'Ectricité sur la matiriê Inorganique et sur la
matiêre Vivante.' He next read a paper 'On the Similarity of effect of
Electric Stimulus on Inorganic and Living Substances' before the
Bradford meeting of the British Association in 1900. He then
contributed a very interesting paper 'on Binocular Alteration of Vision,'
which was published by the Physiological Society of London, in
November 1900. It may be mentioned here, by the way, that, in course
of his investigations on the Response of the Living and Non-Living
substances, Dr. Bose constructed an "artificial retina" to study the
characteristics of the excitatory change produced by a stimulus on the
retina and these characteristics gave him a clue to the unexpected
discovery of the "binocular alteration of vision" in man--"each eye
supplements its fellow by turns, instead of acting as a continuously

yoked pair, as hitherto believed."[15] He next communicated to the
Royal Society his researches 'On the Continuity of Effect of Light and
Electric Radiation on Matter,' and 'On the Similarities between
Mechanical and Radiation Strains,' and 'On the Strain Theory of
Photographic action,' which were published in April 1901. Then, on the
10th May 1901, he delivered his remarkable 'Friday Evening
Discourse,' at the Royal Institution, on the 'Response of Inorganic
Matter to Stimulus.'
OPPOSITION OF THE PHYSIOLOGISTS
Then, on the 5th June 1901, he gave an experimental demonstration,
before the Royal Society, on the subject of his researches 'On Electric
Response of Inorganic Substances' which had already been
communicated to that Society, on the 7th May 1901. He was strongly
assailed by Sir John Burden Sanderson, the leading physiologist, and
some of his followers. They objected to a physicist straying into the
preserve especially reserved for them. They dogmatically asserted as
physiologists that the excitatory response of ordinary plants to
mechanical stimulus was an impossibility. But they failed to urge
anything against the experiment of the physicist. In consequence of this
opposition, Dr. Bose's paper, which was already in print, was not
published but was placed in the archives of the Royal Society. "And it
happened that eight months after the reading of his Paper, another
communication found publication in the Journal of a different Society
which was practically the same as Dr. Bose's but without any
acknowledgment. The author of this communication was a gentleman
who had previously opposed him at the Royal Society. The plagiarism
was subsequently discovered and led to much unpleasantness. It is not
necessary to refer any more to this subject except as an explanation of
the fact that the determined hostility and misrepresentation of one man
succeeded for more than 10 years to bar all avenues of publications for
his discoveries."[16]
The opposition of the physiologists, however, did one good. It spurred
Dr. Bose on and made him stronger in his determination not to
encompass himself, within the narrow groove of physical investigation.

He took furlough for one year, in extension of the period of his
Deputation, and applied himself vigorously to the investigations, which
he had already commenced in India and received facilities from the
Managers of the Royal Institution to work in the Davy-Faraday
Laboratory. He next read, at the Glasgow meeting of the British
Association, in 1901, a paper 'On the Conductivity of Metallic particles
under Cyclic Electro-magnetic Variation.' Then, in March 1902, "Prof.
Bose" says the Nature "performed a series of experiments before the
Linnean Society showing electric response for certain portions of the
plant organism, which proved that as concerning fatigue, behaviour at
high and low temperatures, the effects produced by poisons and
anaesthetics, the responses are identical with those held to be
characteristic of muscle and nerve." The Linnean Society published, in
its Journal, in March 1902, his paper 'On Electric Response of Ordinary
Plants under Mechanical Stimulus.' He then communicated to the
Société de Physique, Paris, his paper 'Sur la Résponse Electrique dans
les Métaux, les Tissu Animaux et Végétaux.' The Royal Society
published, in April 1902, his contribution 'On the Electromotive Wave
accompanying Mechanical Disturbance in Metals in contact with
Electrolyte.' He was next asked by the Royal