The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-29

tune of our children in their turn to l;
 penetrate"
 It is only the fact of this lecture which 1 enables me to tell of Sir Jagadis work.
 He holds that, although science shouia
 be always available to all, no interest at
 taches to scientists. He refuses to lnJect his own personality in any way into the story of his great discoveries.
 To his lecture audience. however, ne displayed an astonishing phenomenon lie showed them the actual movement oi growth in a plant. They actually saw | the influence of electricity on living plant The crescograph was the means l by which this almost uncanny peer lnlo what has been a sealed page of life, was obtained It is the result of the saNaitt
 efforts to solve the problem Of renderlhs 1 the movement of plant growth Vislnie'
 The difficulty of this problem can pc realized by the fact that snail whose
 slowness is proverbial, moves o'oVo tii'e9
 faster than plant grows
 The average rate of plant growth IS
 ahout one hundred thousands part of an 1 inch q second That means that most nlants add one inch to their stature m l little over eleven days, yet with the crescograph you can see the growth nap pening
 l The instrument is simple-so simple that one inarvels it can do so much. A
 magnetic lever rotates an astatc needle delicately poised, and this controls the movement of a small mirror An astatic needle is a device in which two magnetic
 needles are placed parallel. one above the other. but with the north pole of the
 upper one above the south pole or the lower
 The plant movement rotates the needle {, with it's attached mirror and causes
 movement of a spot of light on screen l..- nlant movement is magnifed in its rep Iresentation on the screen from l,o0o,Voo ! to 100 0OO0O00 times This is tantamount to magnifying the highest powers Of the l microscope 100000 times. IT you testeu the crawl of snail by this instrument you would see it flashing oy at speeu of 40OOO miles an hour or ten miles, 1 second.
 Taking a cyclamen leaf Sir Jagadis, at his lecture demonstration. attached It to
 the crescograph The mirror at once re-
 flected spot of light on the screen,
 where 1t moved at rate-of ten rect Tn
 twelve seconds, although the actual rate
 of the plants growth was one hundred
 thousandth part of an inch per second.
 The effect of electricity on plants was
 shown by the application of an electric current to the cyclamen leaf. The quick ened pulsation was noted by the quick | ened movement of the mirror
 Perhaps the most arresting revelations of the resonant recorder-one of Sir J. c. Roses inventions-are the similarities be- tween plants and animals. The discov- cries made by this instrument of heart beats" death spasms. the reactions to | stimulate, to anaesthetics and to poisons. the fundamental unity of the life reac- l tons of plants and animals are new and vital.
 Tn the transactions of the Bose Insti-
 ute, will be found the description of a
 wonderful experiment along these lines which proves that plants, like human II beings have a nervous system. Not only Il were the tremers of excitation recorded Il but the velocity of their transmission II was measured. We now know that plants
 have nervous" impulse in every way II similar to that of animals To put il Il | in a scientifically more exact way, plants Il have a special conducting tissue analog- H ous to the animal nerve. Varying con III ditions in the animal retard or quicker III the speed of impulse. In plants in eX- II actly the same way the speed of i'm II pulse is affected both by cold ant Il warmth and exactly as with animals II the impulse is arrested by the action o II anaesthetics.
 II The effect of alcohol on plants is GU Il riously similar to that on human beings Il Tn plants it first produces an exaltatior H followed by serious depression. ul rants are SuD1ecl 10 uepTeSSlOn ant III shock aud may die of poison. If yo, III strike a tree 1t contracts like an anima Il does when hit, The parallel between tn, II physiology of plants and animals is S, II exact that it may be said there is noth III ing in the animal which has not beer HI forAseen in the plant.
 HI "When plant Is placed in unhapp, MI conditions to quote from the lecture a HI the India office. "as in a bath of ho HI water the time comes when it struggle HI and dies and its struggles are the sam HI as in the aniral
 HI There is more striking fact eee, HI than that We, who pride ourselves ol HI our sensitivity, must now give way to tn HI plant which has a wider range than W HI space, but the plant can. Sir J. c. Bos HI has succeeded in making a plant recor Il message received through wireless |II signalling.
 HI The wonder grows when we pass to tn HI supposedly insensitive world of igorgani III matter. Here again are strange mar HI vels. The researches of Sir Jagadis int HI the conditions of metals have disclose HI the fact that they exhibit fatigue unde ll| prolonged shock and give signs of exal HI tation in response to stimulants. Unde MI the action of poisons they fail to giv HI any response at all.
 III The scientists study of the universe HI senstiveness in plants led him to som HI remarkable experiments with astonist HI ing results. There was a tree in Indi III which supposedly could not = trans HI planted successfully. Sir Jasadis de HI termined to try. The reason. he though III that the tree died when transplanted wa MI that the shock was too great for it. s !i| he decided to put it under an anaestheti MI just as modern surgeon anaesthetize |I his patient The tree was accordingl --x- A