30 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



Wight, in the main pleasantly. But on too adventurous 

 a solitary rowing outside Shanklin Bay he got caught in a 

 squall, and had a very hard three hours' struggle to return, 

 with constant risk of upset ; hence a new increment of fever, 

 though happily with a kindly landlady to nurse him. The 

 next summer included a couple of months as one of a small 

 college party tramping in the Highlands, of which the 

 Trossachs are best remembered ; while the last long vacation 

 was spent in degree work at Cambridge. 



At the outset of these Cambridge studies Bose was still 

 perplexed as to his course, and uncertain of his aptitudes, 

 and he adopted the plan of going as fully as possible to the 

 courses of science lectures ' a perfect orgie of lectures ' 

 and with these to as many laboratories as possible. And 

 with good results ; what better teacher could he have had 

 for Physiology than Michael Foster, or for the Embryology 

 than Francis Balf our, then at the very height of his brilliant 

 powers. Geology too had its interest, both from Professor 

 Hughes and his kindly and hospitable wife ; and so on. 

 But after the middle of the second year, he settled down 

 to regular work in Physics, Chemistry and Botany. Of 

 Professor Liveing's chemical course, the stimulus to spectro- 

 scopy is specially remembered. Vines' lectures and labora- 

 tory of Botany were also much appreciated, and Francis 

 Darwin's first course of Vegetable Physiology was given 

 before he left. But most educative and decisive for the 

 future physicist was the teaching of Lord Rayleigh, whose 

 admirably patient and careful experimentation, to the most 

 scrupulous accuracy, with every factor of disturbance 

 allowed for or compensated, and all with correspondingly 

 clear and careful explanation, produced a profound im- 

 pression, which has been lifelong. Coming after Father 

 Lafont's experimentation, which had been so brilliant and 

 illuminating, and thus the best of introductions to physical 

 science, was this complemental instruction needed by the 

 more advanced student that of the minutest painstaking, 

 so necessary when dealing with large problems, and ensuing 



