"The subject of my address to-night is the 'Unity of Life.' Under a
placid exterior there is a hidden history on the life of the plant. Is
it possible to make the plants write down their own autographs and thus
reveal their history? In order to succeed in this we have first to
discover some compulsive force which will make the plant give an
answering signal, secondly, we have to invent some instrument of extreme
delicacy for the automatic conversion of these signals into an
intelligent script; and last of all, we have ourselves to learn the
nature of the hieroglyphics."
Sir J. C. Bose then explained the principle of his epoch-making Resonant
Recorder which writes down the perception period of the plant within a
thousandth part of a second, and writes down the action of light and
warmth and drugs on the plant; the effect of vitiated air, of passing
clouds, of excess of food and of drink.
"The plant is very human in its virtues and weakness. Plants like
animals become exalted, grow tired or despond. An easy green-house life
makes them less than themselves, overgrown and flabby, capable of
response, till they have become hardened by adversity to a fuller
existence. A time comes when after an answer to a supreme shock, there
is a sudden end of the plant's power to give any further response. This
supreme shock is the shock of death. Even in this crisis there is no
immediate change in the placid appearance of the plant. Drooping and
withering are events that occur long after death itself. How does the
plant then give its last answer? In man at the critical moment a spasm
passes through the whole body and similarly in the plant I find a great
contractile spasm takes place. This is accompanied by an electrical
spasm also. In the script of the Death Recorder the line that up to this
time was being drawn, become suddenly reversed and then ends. This is
the last answer of the plant.
"These our mute companions, silently growing beside our door, have now
told us the tale of their life-tremulousness and their death-spasm in
script that is as inarticulate as they. May it not be said that this
story has a pathos of its own beyond any that we may have conceived?
"We have now before our mind's eye the whole organism of the perceiving,
throbbing and responding plant, a complex unity and not a congeries of
unrelated parts. The barriers which separated kindred phenomena in the
plant and animal are now thrown down. Thus community throughout the
great ocean of life is seen to outweigh apparent dissimilarity Diversity
is swallowed up in unity.
"In realising this, is our sense of final mystery of things deepened or
lessened? Is our sense of wonder diminished when we realise in the
infinite expanse of life that is silent and voiceless the foreshadowings
of more wonderful complexities? Is it not rather that science evokes in
us a deeper sense of awe? Does not each of her new advances gain for us
a step in that stairway of rock which all must climb who desire to look
from the mountain tops of the spirit upon the promised land of truth?"
Sir Jagadis then gave a most interesting exposition of his researches
with the aid of magic lantern slides.