e then showed by another apparatus
of extreme delicacy that electricity might retard and even repel as well
as promote the growth of plant life. But if the law of growth and decay
could be ascertained, it was possible to regulate the control of life
under most varied conditions.

--_Amrita Bazar Patrika_, 29-1-1918.

UNITY OF LIFE

Under the auspices of the Bombay University, Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose
delivered on Thursday, the 31st January 1918, a lecture on the "Unity of
Life." It was illustrated by lantern slides and an instructive
exposition was given of some of his unique discoveries in the realm of
Plant Life....

HIDDEN HISTORY IN PLANTS LIFE

"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