LIFE IN STATE OF SUSPENSE AND ITS SUBSEQUENT RESOLUTION
With the experiments carried with the Magnetic Crescograph life becomes subservient to the will of the experimenter. The rate of growth is indicated by the speed with which a spot of indicating light moves across the scale. The actual rate of growth is fifty thousandth part of an inch per second; this under magnification is seen by the indicating spot of light to move at the rate of 36 inches per second: this is the normal rate. The plant is made to imbibe soda water and the growth becomes suddenly exalted some ten times; but a puff of tobacco smoke instantly retards the rate. To induce further retardation a depressing drug is next applied. The growth gradually comes to a stop and the quiescent of the spot of light shows life in a state of suspense. The plant is now hovering in an unstable poise between life and death, a slight tilt one way, and life gets interlocked in the rigidity of death. But the antidote is applied just in time, the torpor and suspense is over, and life renews her activity once more with the fullest vigour.
It is true that man is but poorly provided for his voyage of discovery in seas unknown, he can hear little and see less. A single octave of light circumscribes his vision; even of the visible the size of the ripple of light imposes an impassable barrier. But he has not been deterred by his limitations but has on the contrary been spurred on its greater efforts in his explanation of the invisible. The mysterious movements of life are not to remain for him inscrutable and indecipherable for all times: but his untiring and single-minded pursuit will someday reveal to him the secret that lies behind the manifestations of life.
—Amrita Bazar Patrika, 13-1-1919.
Sir J. C. Bose gave the following Discourse on the 'Night-Watch of Nymphaea,' at the Bose Institute, on the 24th January, 1919.
[Sir J. C. Bose's discourse delivered at the Bose Institute, on the 24th January, 1919, dealt with the mysterious phenomenon of recurrent opening and closure of flowers. Some of them open in the morning and close in the evening; others do exactly the opposite opening at night and closing during the day. These various effects have been described as the 'waking' and 'sleep' movements of plants. The subject had attracted the attention of plant physiologists for more than half a century. After summarising the various results lost in his recent work says that no satisfactory explanation of the sleep movements of plants has yet been forthcoming and that the true theory can only be established after new and exhaustive research. This investigation has been in progress at Sir J. C. Bose's laboratory for the last five years; and special automatic recorders have been invented by means of which numerous plants have been recording their movements for every hour of the day and night and for many days in succession.]
In course of his discourse the lecturer said "The poets have forestalled the men of science. Why does the water-lily 'Kumud or Nymphaea' keep awake all night long and close her petals during the day? Because the water-lily is the lover of the Moon and like the human soul expanding at the touch of the beloved, the lily opens out her heart at the touch of the moon beam, and keeps watch all night long; she shrinks affrighted by the rude touch of the Sun, and closes her petals during the day. The outer floral leaves of the lily are green, and in the day time the closed flowers are hardly distinguishable from the broad green leaves which float on the water. The scene is transformed in the evening as if by magic, and myriads of glistening white flowers cover the dark water.
"The recurrent daily phenomenon has not only been observed by the poets, but an explanation offered for it. It is the moonlight then that causes the opening of the lily, and the sunlight the movement of closure. Had the poet taken out a lantern in a dark night; he would have noticed that the lily opened at night in total absence of the moon; but a poet is not expected to carry a lantern and peep out in the dark; that inordinate curiosity is characteristic only of the man of science. Again the lily does not close with the appearance of the sun; for the flower often remains awake up to eleven in the forenoon. A French dictionary maker saw Cuvier, the Zoologist about the definition of the crab as 'a little red fish which walks backwards.' 'Admirable,' said Cuvier. 'But the crab is not necessarily little, nor is it red till boiled; it is not a fish, and it cannot walk backwards. But with these exceptions your definition is perfect.' And so also with the poet's description of the movement of the lily, which does not open to moonlight, nor yet close to the sun."
THE 'SLEEP' AND 'WAKING' OF JHINGA FLOWER