of "character" or personality, which must be
respected, humored, or coaxed in order to get the best results.
Perhaps the most valuable testimony along these lines, and which goes
very far toward proving the centuries-old theories of the Yogis
regarding Omnipresent Life, comes from Prof. J. Chunder Bose, of the
Calcutta University, a Hindu educated in the English Universities,
under the best teachers, and who is now a leading scientific authority
in the western world, tie has given to the world some very valuable
scientific information along these lines in his book entitled
"_Response in the Living and Non-living_," which has caused the widest
comment and created the greatest interest among the highest scientific
authorities. His experiments along the lines of the gathering of
evidence of life in the inorganic forms have revolutionized the
theories of modern science, and have done much to further the idea that
life is present everywhere, and that there is no such thing as dead
matter.
He bases his work upon the theory that the best and only true test for
the presence of life in matter is the response of matter to external
stimulus. Proceeding from this fundamental theory he has proven by
in-numerable experiments that so-called inorganic matter, minerals,
metals, etc., give a response to such stimulus, which response is
similar, if not identical, to the response of the matter composing the
bodies of plants, animals, men.
He devised delicate apparatus for the measurement of the response to
the outside stimulus, the degree, and other evidence being recorded in
traces on a revolving cylinder. The tracings or curves obtained from
tin and other metals, when compared with those obtained from living
muscle, were found to be identical. He used a galvanometer, a very
delicate and accurate scientific instrument, in his experiments. This
instrument is so finely adjusted that the faintest current will cause a
deflection of the registering needle, which is delicately swung on a
tiny pivot. If the galvanometer be attached to a human nerve, and the
end of the nerve be irritated, the needle will register.
Prof. Bose found that when he attached the galvanometer to bars of
various metals they gave a similar response when struck or twisted. The
greater the irritation applied to the metal, the greater the response
registered by the instrument. The analogy between the response of the
metal and that of the living muscle was startling.
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