GREAT INDIAN SCIENTIST

Evening Star, Issue 19319, 4 August 1926, Page 12

GREAT INDIAN SCIENTIST

WORK OF SIR J. CHANDRA BOSE THE LIFE OF TREES The line that separates the animal from the plant world has been shown to be vague, or oven non-existent in some respects, by the work of Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, India’s most famous man of science, director of the 'Research Institute that be has founded in Calcutta and that beam his name. A brief review of his work by S. Martin Chisholm, of London, appears in the New York ‘Times.’ Mr Chisholm tells ns that one of Bose's most important experiments is coiKß'rned with the action of the venom of the cobra on the heart-beats of a plant. Sir Jagadis showed long ago that plants have a heart in many wap similar to the elongated heart found in the lower orders of life, such as the earthworm. By a device of marvellous delicacy, the crcscograph, he is able to observe the reactions of tho vegetable heart to minute doses of the poison, and has discovered that it behaves almost as an_ animal's heart behaves under tho same conditions. ' IVe read further:

“In his laboratory in Calcutta Sir Jagadis has conducted experiments which show that alcohol, administered- in small doses, will eid the oxygen formation in a, flower or shrub, but that once the plant oversteps the margin of propriety and drinks to excess its growth becomes at once retarded. “■Dowager ladies and dyspeptic ’millionaires are not, the scientist wizard from Bengal has shown, the only inhabitants of our globe who may renew their youth by treatment with thyroid glands. A dose of thyroid extract at a dilution of one in a billion has increased the vitality of a plant by 40 per cent,., while, a dilution of ten times, that, strength caused 100 per cent, increase in vitality, ■

“ Another’ similarity between plants and human beings is found in the fact that individuals react differently to the same drug. In medical practice it is well known that a drug may produce offectp--4vame.tncally._opt posite in two patients, Sir Jagadis"has shown the same phenomenon in plants.

“As far back as 1919 Bose announced the discovery of a degree of sensitiveness in a plant, far surpassing - the sensitiveness of animals or human beings. He had discovered that the long ether waves used in radio signalling are received by plants, which give measurable. reactions to these electric ■impulses, ' "Sir Chandra Bose has demonstrated the possibility of transplanting a tree without, harming it, wide.it is ‘ unconscious’ from an anaesthetic. A tree thus transplanted was found to shed its leaves in the summer instead of the fall, but if recovered quickly and became normal again.” But of all the investigations of this seenlist of India perhaps the most picturesque, accord : ng to Mr Chisholm, is his inquiry Into the extraordmary behaviour of a dale palm near Fardpur, in Bengal. This tree, which was known among the natives of the place as the “praying palm,” made n practice cverv evening, "t t'e time when fho temple hoi’s were calling the people to prayer, of bowing itself toward the ground as if in an aci o; toiig’cus devotion. Each morning it would raise its head once more. Pilgrims ■were attracted to the spot in great numbers, and offerings made to the tree wee said to h-v'e effected marvellous cures. To quote again :

“ Cons derable difficulty was experienced by Sir Jagadis in obtaining permission, to

investigate the mystery, as it was feared that the miraculous power might be dissipated. But when it was shewn that the instrument to be used bad been made in the scientist’s own laboratory, and that the assistant who would attach it to the tree was himself the son of a priest, all objection vanished. Readings of the instruments showed that the curve recording the palm’s nightly ‘prostration’ and its daily rising was closely allied to the line traced by the morning and evening variation of temperature.

“The investigations were cut short by the sudden death of the tree, but Sir Jagadis, in further experiments, proved that movements similar to those of the famous ‘ praying palm ’ occur in all trees, and cveu in their individual branches and leaves.

“Another pretty and fanciful notion which the Bengali scientist has dispelled is that whioh ascribes the closing of the leaves of certain plants at night to sleep. Such movements, ho has shown, are in no way connected with the phenomenon of sleep. “ But that plants do indulge in restful naps like human beings he has also proved. A special instrument was devised which gave to' a mimosa plant a shock every hour throughout the twenty-four and recorded the response of the plant. Then the lazy habit of tire mimosa was found out. St. is a very late riser, lying long abed in the mornings and not becoming fully alert until midday. It stays up late, too, not retiring before midnight, when it becomes lethargic, although it does net really begin to sleep until the early hours of the morning.

Such are a few of the discoveries of this wizard, who has broken through the supposed barriers between animal life and the so-called inanimate things of Mature. They are the discoveries of a man who in his appearance has far more of the poet and dreamer than of the. scientist. His face is the faro of a visionary who burns continually with some inner fire of idealism. He has, in fact, been accused of being an idealist unpractical in tlx; extreme, for he has time and again refused to make for himself the. profits tvhic.b should justly accrue to him from the apparatus he has invented. In one instance, when be himself refused to patent a new instrument, a friend lookout the American rights in Sir Jagadis’s name, but the scientist, would not take advantage.of bis-.rights, and allowed the patent to lapse. “iHc has dedicated (he whole of his fortune to the Bose Resea-ch Institute in Calcutta. which he founded in 1917 for the benefit of his country. Here students who have specially equipped themselves for research work may without fee carry out their stud es.

"The. work of fin - -tegjdis Chandra Bose has amply ’dispelled the o’d theory that the Fast is not capable of producing a sc ent,ific brain of outstanding eminence. U seems to many, in fact. that, it may be just the Eastern m ; nd, with its vis on ary and philosophic I end,e"cy, that will supnjy the world w'ih seen lists to cany forward the work to which for da,cadis has devoted his life,”