32 Master Minds of Modern Science 



at the Zoo, and happened to pick up the quill of a hedge- 

 hog. In a flash he realized that this was an ideal rod, as 

 indeed it proved to be. 



Another problem was to keep the very delicate instru- 

 ment from being affected by the shaking caused by 

 lorries and other heavy vehicles passing over the road 

 outside the house. Complicated shock-absorbers had to be 

 devised and constructed before this object was attained. 



The Bose Institute is near Calcutta ; there is a lecture 

 theatre and a laboratory surrounded by a charming 

 garden. Around the garden are the quarters of European 

 and Indian students. Not so much as a screw comes 

 from outside. Everything for the delicate instruments is 

 made there in the workshops. There is plenty of money 

 available, for although Sir Jagadis has troubled little 

 about patent rights of his inventions, he has done so 

 many marvellous things that he has made a large fortune 

 — how large may be gathered from the fact that he has 

 endowed his institute with a sum of one hundred thousand 

 pounds; and although he lives like a hermit and gives 

 away almost all his income, yet fresh sums are always 

 coming in from all parts of the world. 



His instruments are so marvellously delicate that he has 

 been able to prove that plants respond to wireless stimu- 

 lation which is beyond the limit of human perception. 

 Here is an instance of his methods. He takes a mimosa 

 (the sensitive plant already mentioned) and brings this 

 up under glass, screened from all shock and discomfort. 

 To all appearance it flourishes and grows fat, yet when 

 tested it proves sluggish. It no longer responds, like its 

 wild brother, to stimulation. A graph of its slow move- 

 ments is taken ; these provide a startling contrast to the 

 complete collapse of the wild mimosa. 



Then Sir Jagadis poisons a plant, placing the stem in 

 bromide, and the plant is made to inscribe the throbbing 

 pulsations due to the action of the poison. The result 



