As for the research itself, he said its bearings are not exclusively
specialistic, but touch the foundation of various branches of science.
To mention only a few; in medicine it had to deal with the fundamental
reaction of protoplasm to various drugs, the solution of the problem why
an identical agent brings about diametrically opposite effects in
different constitutions; in the science of life it dealt with the new
comparative physiology by which any specific characteristic of a tissue
is traced from the simplest type in plant to the most complex in the
animal; the study of the mysterious phenomenon of death and the
accurate determination of the death point and the various conditions by
which this point may be dislocated backwards and forwards; in psychology
it had to deal with the unravelling of the great mystery that underlies
memory and tracing it backwards to latent impressions even in the
inorganic bodies which are capable of subsequent revival; and finally,
the determination of the special characteristic of that vehicle through
which sensiferous impulses are transmitted and the possibility of
changing the intensity and the tone of sensation. All these
investigations, Dr. Bose said, are to be carried out by new physical
methods of the utmost delicacy. He had in these years been able to
remove the obstacles in the path and had lifted the veil so as to catch
a glimpse of the ineffable wonder that had hitherto been hidden from
view. The real work, he said, had only just begun.