Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose | Page 6

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 g��n��ralit�� de Ph��nom��nes Moleculairs produits par l'Ectricit�� sur la matiri�� Inorganique et sur la mati��re 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 Soci��t�� de Physique, Paris, his paper 'Sur la R��sponse Electrique dans les M��taux, les Tissu Animaux et V��g��taux.' 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 Photographic Society to give a discourse 'On the Strain Theory Vision and of Photographic Action,' which was published by the Society, in its Journal, in June 1902. He then wrote a paper 'On the Electric Response in Animal, Vegetable and Metal,' which was read before the Belfast meeting of the British Association, in 1902. The President