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 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 of
the Botanical Section at Belfast, in his address, observed "Some very
striking results were published by Bose on Electric Response in ordinary
plants. Bose's investigations established a very close similarity in
behaviour between the vegetable and the animal. Summation effects were
observed and fatigue effect demonstrated, while it was definitely shown
that the responses were physiological. They ceased as soon as the piece
of tissue was killed by heating. These observations strengthen
considerably the view of the identical nature of the animal and
vegetable protoplasm."
Dr. Bose then brought out a systematic treatise embodying the results of
his researches under the significant title of 'Response in the Living
and Non-living.' He returned to India, in October, 1902.