Plant Autographs and Their Revelations

It is evident that conduction will depend on the mobility of the particles along which the impulse is sent. Imagine two successive transmissions in the same nerve under similar stimulations : if the mobility of the particles have been increased under certain treatment, the impulse will be quickened and become more intense. Contrariwise, with diminished mobility, conduction by the particles will be weakened, even to extinction. The mobility of the particles and the power of conduction are increased or decreased by use and disuse. The nerve unstimulated lies passive and inert ; but subjected to stimuli, it becomes energised and highly conducting. Stimulation by thought increases our power of thought.

The intensity of the nervous impulse causing sensation is thus not merely conditioned by the strength of the stimulus, but modified by the variable condition of the nervous particles. A further step in the reasoning carries us from mere propagation of molecular disturbance constituting the impulse, to the acceleration or inhibition of the impulse under opposite molecular predisposition. Instead of a row of balls, let us imagine a row of standing books. A certain intensity of blow applied, say, to the book on the extreme right, causes it to fall to the left, hitting its neigh¬ bour and making the other books topple over in succession. If the books had previously been tilted slightly to the left, a disposition would have been given to them which would bring about an upset under a feebler blow and accelerate the speed of the impulse. A tilt in the opposite direction would, on the other hand, be a predisposition to retard or inhibit the impulse.

Is it at all possible to induce opposite molecular dis¬ positions in the nerve, so that in one case a subliminal stimulus will be effectively transmitted and brought into sensory prominence, and, in the other case, an intense wave due to a violent stimulus will be inhibited during transit and thus obliterated? These theoretical anticipations must now be subjected to experimental tests. The molecules of the nerve have to be coerced at one’s bidding into arranging themselves favourably or unfavour¬ ably for the passage of impulse. This can be effected by the employment of an electric force of a polar character. The polarising action of an electric current is shown by the fact that during its passage through a trough of water from left to right, the hydrogen atoms turn towards the right ; when the current is reversed, they turn to the left. The molecules of the nerve can be similarly orientated during the passage of an electric current, so as to predispose them to facilitate or oppose the nervous impulse.

The results obtained are of extraordinary interest. By conferring on the plant-nerve a favourable molecular disposition, a feeble stimulus previously below the threshold of perception now produces an extraordinarily large re¬ sponse. Conversely, an intense excitation generated by a violent stimulus is arrested during transit by inducing opposite molecular disposition on the nervous tissue. The plant now takes no account of the intense shock. A climax was reached when by the application of similar methods I was able to confer on the animal nerve a supra-

conducting or non-conducting property at will. Thus under a particular molecular disposition of the nerve, the experi¬ mental frog responded to a stimulus which had hitherto been below its threshold of perception. Under the opposite disposition, the violent spasm under intense irritation caused by application of salt, NaCl, was at once quelled as if by magic. ^ The foregoing experiments have demonstrated that two opposite molecular dispositions can be induced in nerve by the polar action of a constant electric current, accelerating or inhibiting the passage of a nervous impulse. The ques¬ tion naturally arises whether or not the action of the Will upon the nerves of the body may not be of a similar nature. Now, full scientific attention has not yet been given to the power of our will in controlling all bodily functions. The muscular system, for example, has been classified as voluntary or involuntary, the latter being regarded as beyond the control of the Will. Yet I have known instances in which involuntary muscles have been brought under the control of human will, so much so that the automatic beats of the heart were brought to a stop and afterwards renewed. I have also seen X-ray photo¬ graphs demonstrating normal and reversed peristalsis of the alimentary canal produced at will. Very few have realised how great becomes the power of the Will when intensified by practice and concentration. There can be no doubt of the predispositions which can be conferred on the nerves by the internal power of the Will facilitating or inhibiting nervous impulses. The effect of attention or expectation in enhancing 'perception is familiar, so also is the power of suggestion. The following incident will show the influence of Will in controlling the nerves.

^ ‘The Influence of Homodromous and Heterodromous Current on Transmission of Excitation in Plant and Animal,’ Proceedings of Royal Society, B, vol. 88, 1914. Himalayan Terrai in Kiimaim. Terror prevailed among the villagers, for a man-eating tigress had come down from the forest and numerous had been the toll of lives exacted. The murderess of the forest would come out even in broad daylight and leisurely take her prey from among them. When all hope of deliverance had nearly vanished, the villagers appealed to Kaloo Singh, a simple peasant who possessed an old matchlock. With this primitive weapon and with the entreaties of his fellow villagers ringing in his ears, Kaloo Singh started on his perilous adventure.

The tigress had killed a buffalo and left it in the field. Kaloo Singh waited there for her return to the kill ; there was not a tree near, only a low bush behind which he lay crouched. After hours of waiting, as the sun was going down, he was startled by the sudden apparition of the tigress within six feet of him. Trying to raise his gun, he could take no aim, as his arm was shaking with uncon¬ trollable fear. Kaloo Singh explained to me afterwards how he suc¬ ceeded in shaking off his mortal terror : T quietly said to myself, “Kaloo Singh, Kaloo Singh, who sent you here? Did not the villagers put their trust in you?” I could then no longer lie in hiding and I stood up, and then some¬ thing strange happened. All trembling went, and I became as hard as steel. The tigress, with eyes blazing and lashing tail, crouched for the spring; only six feet lay between us. She sprang and my gun went off at the same time : she missed her aim and fell dead by my side.’

In the determination of sensation, then, the internal stimulus of the Will may play as important a part as the shock from outside. And thus, through the inner control of the nerve, the character of the resulting sensation may become profoundly modified. The external, then, is not so overwhelmingly dominant, and man is no longer a passive agent in the hand of destiny. He has a latent power which will raise him above the terrors of his inimical surroundings. It rests with him whether the channels through which the outside world reaches him shall at his command be widened or closed. It should thus be possible for him to catch those indistinct messages that have hitherto passed by him unperceived ; or he may with¬ draw within himself, so that in his inner realms the jarring notes and the din of the world no longer affect him.

From the plant to the animal, then, we follow the long stairway of the ascent of Life. In the high spiritual triumph of the martyr, the ecstasy of the saint, we see the higher and higher expression of that evolutionary process by which Life rises above and beyond all the circumstances of the environment, and fortifies itself to control them. The thrill in matter, the throb of life, the pulse of growth, the impulse coursing through the nerve and the resulting sensations, how diverse are these and yet so unified! How strange it is that the tremor of excitation in nervous matter should not merely be transmitted but transmuted and reflected, like an image on a mirror, into a different plane of life in sensation and in affection, in thought and in emotion. Of these, which is the more real, the material body or the image which is independent of it? Which of these is undecaying, and which beyond the reach of death?

Many a nation has risen in the past and won the empire of the world. A few buried fragments are all that remain as memorials of the great dynasties that wielded the temporal power. There is, however, another element which finds its incarnation in matter, yet transcends its trans¬ mutation and apparent destruction : that is the burning flame born of thought which has been handed down through fleeting generations. Not in matter, but in thought, not in possessions nor even in attainments, but in ideals, is to be found the seed of immortality.

In pursuit of my investigations, I was unconsciously led into the border region of physics and physiology, and was amazed to find boundary lines vanishing and points of contact emerging between the realms of the Living and Non-Living. Inorganic matter was found to be anything but inert ; it also was a thrill under the action of multitudinous forces that played on it. A common reaction seemed to bring together metal, plant, and animal under a general law. They all exhibited the phenomena of fatigue and depression, together with possibilities of recovery and of exaltation, yet also that of permanent irresponsiveness which is associated with death.

The further and fuller investigations of the many and ever- opening problems of the nascent science which includes both Life and Non-Life are among the main purposes of the Institute I am opening to-day. The present time may be regarded as inopportune for any new undertaking, when a great tragedy is hanging over human destiny. But it is at such a crisis that men learn to discriminate the Real from the Unreal, so that they can dedicate themselves to the pursuit of Truth which is eternal.

There are at this moment two complementary and not antagonistic ideals before the country. There is first the individualistic ideal of wanning success in all affairs, of securing material efficiency and of satisfying personal ambition. These are necessary, but by themselves they cannot ensure the life of a nation. Such material activities have brought as their fruit great accessions of powder and w^ealth. There has been a feverish rush even in the realm of science for exploiting applica¬ tions of knowledge, not so often for saving as for causing

From the Inaugural Address on the occasion of the dedication of the Bose Institute, November 30, 1917. destruction. In the absence of some power of restraint, civilisa¬ tion is now trembling in an unstable poise on the brink of ruin. Some complementary ideal there must be to save man from that aimless rush which must end in disaster. He has followed the lure and excitement of some insatiable ambition, never pausing for a moment to think of the ultimate object for which success was to serve as a temporary incentive. He forgot that far more potent than competition is mutual help and co-operation in the scheme of life.

Nevertheless there have been some who, beyond the immediate and absorbing prize of the hour, have sought for the realisation of the highest ideal of life, not through passive renunciation, but through active struggle. The weakling who has refused the conflict, having acquired nothing, has nothing to renounce. He alone who has striven and won can enrich the world by giving away the fruits of his victorious experience. The ideal of giving, of enriching, in fine, of self-renunciation in response to the highest call of humanity is the other and complementary ideal. The motive power for this is to be found not in personal ambition but in the effacement of all littleness, and in the uprooting of that ignorance which regards anything as gain which is to be purchased at another’s loss. This I know, that no vision of truth can come except in the absence of all sources of distraction, and when the mind has reached the point of rest. And for my disciples I call on those very few who will devote their whole life with strengthened character and deter¬ mined purpose to take part in that infinite struggle to win knowledge for its own sake and see Truth face to face.

The work already carried out in my Laboratory on the response of matter, and the unexpected revelations in plant-life, foreshadowing the wonders of the highest animal-life, have opened out very extended regions of inquiry in Physics, in Physiology, in Medicine, in Agriculture, and even in Psychology. These inquiries are obviously more extensive than those cus¬ tomary either among physicists or physiologists, for they demand interests and aptitudes hitherto more or less divided between them. In the study of Nature there is a necessity for a dual view-point, an alternating yet rhythmically unified interaction of biological thought with physical studies, and of physical thought with biological studies. The future worker with his

freshened grasp of physics, his fuller conception of the inorganic world as indeed thrilling with ‘the promise and potency of life,’ will redouble his former energies for work and thought. He will thus be in a position to winnow the old knowledge with finer sieves, to re-search it with new enthusiasm and subtler instru¬ ments. His handling of these will at once be more vital and more kinetic, more comprehensive and more unified. The advancement of science is the principal object of this Institute, as well as the diflusion of knowledge. We are here in the largest of all the many chambers of this House of Knowl¬ edge, its Lecture Room. In adding this large auditorium, I have sought permanently to associate the advancement of knowledge with the widest possible civic and public diffusion of it ; and this without any academic limitations, henceforth to all races and languages, both men and women alike, and for all time coming. The lectures given here will announce, to an audience of some fifteen hundred people, the new discoveries, which will be demonstrated for the first time before the public. We shall thus maintain continuously the highest aim of a great seat of learning by taking an active part in both the advancement and the diffusion of knowledge.

It is my further wish that, as far as the limited accommodation would permit, the facilities of this Institute should be available to workers from all countries. In this I am attempting to carry out the traditions of my country, which, so far back as twenty- five centuries ago, welcomed all scholars, from different parts of the world, within the precincts of its ancient seats of learning, at Nalanda and at Taxilla. With this widened outlook we shall not only maintain the highest traditions of the past, but also serve the world in nobler ways. We shall be at one with it in feeling the common surgings of life, the common love for the good, the true, and the beautiful. In this Institute, this Study and Garden of Life, the claim of Art has not been forgotten, for the artist has been working with us, from foundation to pinnacle, and from floor to ceiling of this very hall. And beyond that arch, the Laboratory merges imper¬ ceptibly into the Garden, which is the true laboratory for the study of Life. There the creepers, the plants, and the trees are played upon by their natural environments — sunlight and wind, and the chill at midnight under the vault of starry space. There

are other surroundings also, where they will be subjected to chromatic action of different lights, to invisible rays, to electri¬ cally charged atmosphere. Everywhere they will transcribe in theiV own script the history of their experience. From his lofty point of observation, sheltered by the trees, the student will watch this panorama of life. Isolated from ail distractions, he will learn to attune himself to Nature ; the obscuring veil will be lifted, and he will gradually come to see how throughout the great ocean of life community outweighs apparent dissimilarity. Out of discord he will realise the great harmony.

These are the dreams that have woven a network round my wakeful life for many years past. The outlook is endless, for the goal is at infinity. The full realisation cannot be through one life or one fortune, but through the co-operation of many lives and many fortunes. The possibility of a fuller expansion will depend on very large endowments. But a beginning must be made, and this is the genesis of the foundation of this Insti¬ tute. I came with nothing and shall return as I came; if something be accomplished in the interval, that will indeed have been a privilege. What I have, I will offer ; and one who had shared with me the struggles and hardships that have had to be faced has wished to bequeath all that is hers for the same object.

The excessive specialisation in modern science has led to the danger of losing sight of the fundamental fact that there can be but one truth, one science, which includes all the branches of knowledge. How chaotic appear the happenings in Nature ! Is Nature a Cosmos in which the human mind is some day to realise the uniform march of sequence, order, and law? India through her habit of mind is peculiarly fitted to realise the idea of unity, and to see in the phenomenal world an orderly universe. It was this trend of thought that led me .unconsciously to the frontiers of different sciences and shaped the course of my work in its constant alternation between the theoretical and the practical, from the investigation of the inorganic world so that of organised life and its multifarious activities of growth, of movement, and even of sensation. Thus the lines of physics, of physiology, and of psychology converge and meet. And here will assemble those who would seek oneness amidst the manifold.

Baby, action of, 81 Bahnung or facilitation, 207-8 Banyan seed, resistance of, i Bergson on consciousness, 23 Bio phy turn and automatism, 77, Camphor, effect on heart, 176 plant pulse, 176 Carrot, response of, 38 Cassia alata awake and asleep, Carbon-assimilation, 182 fol. See Photosynthesis Celery easily tired, 38 Cells, contractile, plant and an¬ imal, 27 Dahlia, autograph of, 58 Day’s record machine, 43 Dark, sub-tonic effect of, 149 Death, discoloration at, 67; elec¬ tric discharge at, 68 ; of peas, voltage in, 68; is ex¬ treme stimulation, 72 Death-curve, 65 Death-message transmitted, 71 Death-recorder, 70 Desmodium gyrans, dancing leaves, 74

effect of drought and irriga¬ tion, 76; ether, 76; poison, 77 ; confinement, 81 stored energy in, 81 ; stimula¬ tion stops growth, 88 ; shock of wounding, 104 Diastole and systole, drug effect at, 77 Growth, effect of anaesthetics on, 89 ; drought on, 87 ; car¬ bonic acid on, 96; flash of light on, 96 ; wireless on, made visible, loi ; promoted by thrashing, 103 ; pulsatory, 86 ; stimulus contrasts, 88 Handwriting, character by, 3 Heart of plant, 145 ; reacts like animal heart, 147-8 Helios’ leaf-chariot, 210 fob source of all movement, 216 Heliotropism, positive becomes negative, 120

Mango, sap pulsations, 147 weeping, 154 fob Alanurial agents, precise test for, Man’s limited senses, loi Matter, potency of life in, 59 Memory revival, 68 Metal, tired, 60; stimulated, 61; poisoned, 63 Palm, praying, 48 ; newspaper version, 54; English case, 54; physical or physiolog- Palm, sugar from, 161 : daily yield. 161 ; how drained. 161 ; hourly variation. 162: stimulated by cutting, 163 ; stimulated by milking. 165 Papaya autograph, 57 Paralysis from wound, 104 Peas, voltage in, 68 Perception very high in plants,

Seeds, resistance of, i Sensitive, all plants are. 15 Sensitive plant. See Mimosa Sensitiveness, three grades, 25 Shuchikavaran, 179 Sleep of plants, 42 fol. Sleep-recorder, 44 Solar energv stored bv plants. Sphymograph, optical. 168 : mag¬ nifies ten million times, 169 Staining to find muscle, 27 nerve, 204 Stimulus, effect of, 3 : strong and feeble, 88 : all kinds alike, 88: point of appli¬ cation. 91 ; direct and indi¬ rect, 92 Telegraph plant. See Desmodium Temperament in plants, 196 Temperature, optimum and min¬ imum, 20

Ten million magnification, 100 Tetanisation, frog and fern, 206 Thermal dawn and noon, 156 Thrashing to promote growth, Tongue, sensitiveness of, 22 Tonic condition important, 92 Transmission of impulse, mole¬ cular, 226 Vascular bundle diagram, 202 Vertical, sense of, in plants, 108