88 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



A very cordial invitation fortunately came from the Inter- 

 national Congress of Physics, which was one of the many 

 world-gatherings arranged at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. 



The surprising results which Bose obtained had roused 

 the interest of the new Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and 

 he decided to send Bose on a scientific deputation to Europe, 

 as his predecessor had done four years before. He believed 

 that ' the visit of Professor Bose to Paris will be of great 

 advantage to the singularly original researches in which 

 he is engaged.' Accordingly, Bose reached Paris in August 

 1900, as a delegate from the Governments of Bengal and 

 of India. 



Bose read his paper on the Response of Inorganic and 

 Living Matter before the Paris International Congress of 

 Physicists (1900). * Reference has already been made to 

 Bose's observation of the curious phenomenon of fatigue 

 exhibited by the receivers of his electric waves ; and of how 

 fatigue was removed after a period of rest. The receiver, 

 however, became insensitive when left idle for too long a 

 period ; and in this latter case the inertness was removed 

 by the stimulus of an electric shock. In this paper, however, 

 Bose for the first time in science compares and parallelises 

 the responses to the excitation of living tissues with those 

 of inorganic matter. 



A muscle-curve registers the history of the molecular change 

 produced by excitation in a living tissue, exactly as the curve 

 of molecular reaction registers an analogous change in an in- 

 organic substance. The two represent the same thing ; in the 

 latter the molecular deformation is evidenced by the change 

 of conductivity ; in the other the same deformation is mani- 

 fested by the change of form. We have thus means of study 

 of the molecular reaction produced by stimulus, of varying 

 frequency, intensity and duration. An abyss separates the 

 phenomena of living matter from those of inanimate matter. 

 But if we are ever to understand the hidden mechanism of 



1 'De la Generalite desPhenomenesMoleculaires produits parl'6lectricit6 

 sur la Matiere Inorganique et sur la Matiere Vivante,' Congres Inter- 

 national de Physique, 1900. 



