Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

Prof. Bose's discovery, now embodied in book-form and entitled "Response in the Living and the Non-Living," marks a new epoch in the advancement of modern science. It has been accepted by all scientific authorities, after the Professor had demonstrated it by experiments before a large number of scientific people in London, and notably by Lord Kelvin.

Armed with the demonstrated facts of this discovery. Professor Bose maintains that the true test of the existence of life in any form of matter is its sensitiveness to external stimulus. According to this test he proves conclusively that no essential difference exists between animals and metals or vegetables. He has shown by scientific experiments that a bar of iron is not only as irritable and sensitive as a human body, but that it can be killed or poisoned in the same way as a human body can be killed or poisoned. According to his discovery, life pervades every object and part of Nature; and only some of these parts or objects can be said to be in a dead state, which means they can be deprived of their sensitiveness to external stimulus.

If any part of our body is pinched, the nerve which connects that part with the brain, running all along, sends an electric current to the brain, vibrating under the pinch. The brain alone feels the pain inflicted upon any part of our body, says modern science; and it is proved by the fact that no pain is felt by us if our brain is deadened by chloroform.

The galvanometer is a well-known and very delicate scientific instrument for detecting the presence of electric currents; it has a needle on a pivot, and the faintest electric current will cause a deflection of this needle. If at any intervening part of the electric current-bearing nerve in the human body the galvanometer be attached, and the end of the nerve pinched or otherwise irritated, then immediately the needle of the galvanometer will deflect, thus showing that the irritation of the nerve causes a current like that of electricity to be sent along it. This fact is now very well known to scientists, and Prof. Bose's investigations are based upon this well-known scientific fact.

With a view to ascertaining whether or not matter which has hitherto been known as non-living could be proved so under the test of the galvanometer, the Professor attached the instrument to bars of different metals, with startling contrary results. The Professor found that all metals show visible signs of sensitiveness when twisted or tapped. The greater the irritation the greater the visible signs of sensitiveness; even every single peculiarity in the irritability of animal matter is exactly reproduced in the case of metal. As, for instance, when the sensitiveness of a muscle or a nerve of an animal wears off after a time, under repeated irritation, it begins to show signs of fatigue, the deflection of the needle of the galvanometer becoming more and more feeble; the Professor found that metals would betray exactly the same signs of fatigue under repeated irritation. Again, after a short rest, the signs of fatigue were found to disappear in animal muscle and in metal alike, their sensitiveness being fully restored. This last fact is known to many of us who constantly use a razor and find it losing its keen edge and growing duller and duller, despite vigorous stropping, and spontaneously recovering its original keenness by being laid aside for a few days.

Professor Bose's process of registering the deflections of the needle of the galvanometer is this: By a mechanical device the point of the needle is photographed on paper, which is moved along at a constant rate, the needle's point tracing out a series of zig-zag lines on the paper, when the needle is oscillated by an electric current. The width of the zig-zags corresponds to the amount of the deflection of the needle, therefore the strength of the electric current. If there be no current, and consequently no deflection of the needle, its point will remain stationary and merely trace a straight line on the moving paper.

This book of Prof. Bose's, "Response in the Living and the Non-Living," is full of still more wonderful revelations. He has found and shown, to the satisfaction of European scientists through experiments, that metals do not only go to sleep, but can be poisoned and killed like human beings and animals. Like an unused animal muscle showing signs of sluggishness and appearing to be in a kind of torpor, then gradually seeming to waken up under irritation, and finally returning to full activity, Professor Bose proves that metals behave in exactly the same way and process of gradation. He also proves that the effects of extreme cold and extreme heat produce exactly similar conditions in both animals and metals.

But men or animals can be drugged and made drunk. Can metals likewise be drugged and made drunk? Yes, says Prof. Bose, and he proves it absolutely. He proves that metals show the same increase of irritability under the influence of stimulants and narcotics as the human body. Moreover, even as different animals are affected differently by the same dose of a stimulant, so also are different metals. Under the influence of carbonate of sodium, irritability of platinum is increased threefold, while the irritability of tin is less.

Still more significant is the action of anaesthetics and narcotics. Under their action the sensitiveness of metals can be reduced to any desired degree, exactly as is the case of human beings. A more striking parallel between animal matter and metals is established by Prof. Bose. The action of some narcotics on the human frame is known to be paradoxical under certain conditions. While a large dose of opium, for instance, decreases the sensitiveness of the human body, a very minute dose has exactly the opposite effect, that is to say, acts as a stimulant. This anomaly has been found by Prof. Bose to have a parallel in metals, tin being found to show that its sensitiveness is increased half as much again by being treated with a minute dose of potash (3 parts in 100), but the sensitiveness begins to decrease when the dose is increased.

Now the question suggests itself that if metals are as much alive as animals, then they must also be as liable to die as animals. Prof. Bose has found this to be a fact, too. Metals not only die; but they can be poisoned and revived, and poisoned and killed.