96 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



them coming to an end. Oxalic acid was found specially 

 effective, to which tin, the most sensitive of metals, imme- 

 diately gave way : even platinum, chemically the most 

 inert of the noble metals, soon succumbed. Recalling 

 Darwin's observation of the stimulating action of ammonium 

 carbonate on the sundew, Bose tried this on his metals, 

 and with the surprising result of its augmenting their 

 normal response, even three- or fourfold. Again, toxic 



FIG. 6. Stimulating action of minute quantity of ' poison ' which in 

 large doses abolishes the response of metal. 



agents, which in large doses poison the plant, but in minute 

 doses stimulate it, were found to have precisely similar 

 effects upon the metals ; and similarly with certain other 

 drugs. 



So striking was this correspondence, that one day when 

 Bose was beginning to show his records to Sir Michael Foster, 

 the veteran physiologist of Cambridge, the latter picked 

 up one and said, ' Come now, Bose, what is the novelty in 

 this curve ? We have known it for at least the last half- 

 century.' ' What do you think it is ? ' said Bose. ' Why, 

 a curve of muscle response, of course.' ' Pardon me ; it is 

 the response of metallic tin.' ' What ! ' said Foster, jump- 

 ing up ' Tin ! Did you say tin ? ' On explanation, 



