October 28, 1920] 



NATURE 



273 



of securing a university education in England. It 

 is narrated how this difficulty was overcome, so 

 that in 1881, at the age of 23, he was able to 

 enter the University of Cambridge as a scholar of 

 Christ's College, the college of which his brother- 

 in-law, Mr. A. M. Bose, the first Indian wrangler, 

 had become a member ten years previously. It 

 may be incidentally mentioned here that Mr. 

 F"itzpatrick, who is mentioned as one of his college 

 friends (p. 29), is not, as stated. Master of 

 Kmmanuel College, but President of Queens' 

 College. Having successfully completed his 

 university career, Bose returned to India to face 

 the next serious difficulty — that of obtaining a 

 suitable educational post. It is explained how 

 impossible it seemed to the official mind that a 

 native of India should be fitted by ability and 

 attainments for a professorship in physical science 

 — there was no precedent for such a claim ! How- 

 ever, chiefly by the influence of the then Viceroy, 

 Lord Ripon, Bose was appointed professor of 

 physics in the Presidency College, Calcutta, a post 

 which he held until i9«5. During this period he 

 was busily engaged, not only in maintaining and 

 increasing the efficiency of his department by 

 securing adequate laboratory accommodation, but 

 also in carrying on the researches that have made 

 his name famous. 



Of these researches the author gives an attrac- 

 tively lucid and succinct account. The first were 

 wholly physical, and to these three chapters (iv.-vi.) 

 are devoted. Their main subject was that of the 

 properties of the Hertzian electric waves, by which 

 wireless telegraphy is effected. It is of interest 

 to note that, so far back as 1895, Bose had demon- 

 strated the passage of these waves from one part 

 to another of his laboratory building. In the 

 course of this work he observed that his metallic 

 receivers manifested signs of "fatigue," an obser- 

 vation which led him to a comparison, in this 

 respect, of metals and of animal- and plant-tissues, 

 with the result that he found them to be essentially 

 identical (chap, vii., "Response in Living and Non- 

 Living"). He became so deeply interested in the 

 study of the irritability and movements of plants 

 that for the next twenty yejrs he devoted himself 

 almost exclusively to it. An adequate account of 

 his remarkable work in this direction is given in 

 chaps, ix.-xv. The results may be summed up in 

 the brief statement that the phenomena of irri- 

 tability of animals and plants arc altogether 

 analogous, and that the multiform movements of 

 plants are susceptible of a simple universal ex- 

 planation, depending fundamentally on the quantity 

 of stimulus received. These great generalisations 

 were rendered possible by the employment of 

 recording apparatus much more delicate than any 

 NO. 2661, VOL. 106] 



previously devised, and capable of magnifying the 

 minute movements a thousand or even a million 

 times. The last, and the most formidable, of the 

 difficulties to be overcome was that of securing 

 recognition of his work. So long as Bose's re- 

 searches were confined to purely physical subjects 

 it did not arise ; but when he trespassed into the 

 domain of physiology opposition became strong in 

 this country, though on the Continent and in 

 .\merica his results were received with enthusiasm. 

 Here the antiquated idea of "water-tight compart- 

 ments " in science asserted itself to such an extent 

 that it was not for many years that justice was 

 done. All this is fully discussed in the author's 

 pages, where it is also made clear that ultimate 

 triumph was due not to ability alone, but mainly 

 to strength of character and lofty ideals. 



The sub-title of the book is ".An Indian Pioneer 

 of Science." Like all pioneers. Sir J. C. Bose has 

 had to encounter many and great difficulties and, 

 as has been pointed out, he has, unlike many 

 pioneers, successfully overcome them. It is to be 

 hoped that, now that the days of storm and stress 

 are over, he may be able to devote all his energy 

 to the continuance of his work in the Institute that 

 he has founded for the purpose. The volume is 

 well got up, and is illustrated with portraits and 

 many figures of apparatus and records. It would 

 have been an advantage if a full bibliography of 

 Sir J. C. Bose's works had been appended, while 

 the index would be more useful if it were more 

 complete. 



Elementary Geometry. 



Practical Geometry. By C. Godfrey and A. W. 

 Siddons. Pp. xv -1-256. Theoretical Geometry : 

 A Sequel to "Practical Geometry." By C. 

 Godfrey and \. W. Siddons. Pp. xiv+104. 

 (Cambridge : At the University Press, 1920.) 

 Price 7s. net. (Complete in one volume.) 



THE authors of these two volumes (obtainable 

 also as a single book) regard the teaching 

 of geometry as divisible into four stages. The 

 first consists of little more than instruction in the 

 use of instruments and methods of measurement, 

 including drawing to scale. The second is an 

 intuitive treatment of a few fundamental proposi- 

 tions, and merges into the third stage, which 

 covers the whole field of the ordinary course of 

 elementary geometry, plane and solid, treating 

 the various theorems in an informal fashion, and 

 explaining the methods of constructions, often 

 without proof, in the natural order suggested by 

 the theorems. In these stages the pupil is led 

 to apply the results of the theorems, whether 

 formally proved or not, both to numerical 



