Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose | Page 9

Society, which was published, in December 1902. Then, in
1903, he communicated to the Royal Society his researches on
'Investigation on Mechanical Response in Plants,' 'On Polar effects of
Currents on the Stimulation of Plants,' 'On the Velocity of
Transmission of Excitatory waves in Plants,' 'On the excitability and
conductivity of Plant Tissues,' 'On the Propagation of the Electromotive
Wave concomitant of Excitatory Waves in Plants,' 'On Multiple
Response in 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being withdrawn."[20]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