invented producing the stupendous magnification of a hundred million times.
Such supersensitive apparatus is however of no avail unless one can make use of it after having gained complete control of the adjusting hand. For any imperceptible tremor of the finger becomes enormously magnified by the highly sensitive apparatus. The power of the mind in controlling the body is beyond anything that has been conceived: and the results achieved are even more wonderful than the illusions of magic.
The conditions for any great discovery are, then, a great imaginative faculty and power of introspection, the faculties of invention and of great experimental dexterity. I am in a position to say that the Indian worker has an unique advantage in his introspective power acquired under special training; in experimental dexterity also he can hold his own; I shall presently have occasion to speak of his capacity for invention and constructive skill. All these can be imparted by personal training and through years of discipline.
In founding my Institute eight years ago, I called for my disciples those very few, who would devote their whole life with strengthened character and determined purpose to take part in the infinite struggle to win knowledge for its own sake and see truth face to face. It was not to a life of passivity that they were called, but to one of intense activity; held in check, the power conserved being set free for breaking through all obstacles in extending knowledge for common benefit of mankind. The ideals and methods pursued in my Institute are by no means utopian; their practicality is fully attested by the unusually large number of investigations that have been brought to successful conclusion in the course of the last few years. The account of these investigations, some two hundred in number, will be found fully described in the seven volumes published by Messrs. Longmans and Green[1].
Inventions
This great productivity is to a great extent due to the successful invention, at the Institute, of instruments of such extraordinary sensitiveness that considerable incredulity was at first entertained about their performance. The exhibition of the instruments at various scientific centres in the West has, however, removed all and it has now been recognised that India’s specific contributions would greatly advance different branches of knowledge. The phenomena of life are ultimately due to the reactions of individual cells, and are therefore infra-perceptible; they cannot be detected on account of the imperfections of our senses. Speculation, often most grotesque, has taken the place of ascertainable facts blocking all advance of knowledge. The new instruments by their automatic records are now for the first time, revealing the inner mechanism of life, and many regions of inquiry have been opened out, which had at one time been regarded as beyond the scope of experimental exploration. Of about fifty new inventions have been perfected, I will mention a few typical ones.
The Magnetic Radiometer. This enables the accurate measurement of energy of every ray in the solar spectrum, and their relative loss by atmospheric absorption, as the sun moves from the horizon to the zenith. In conjunction with a special calorimeter it has enabled the determination of the efficiency of the chlorophyl apparatus of green plants in storage of solar energy. This efficiency has been found to be much higher than had previously been supposed.
The Radiograph. The changing intensity of daylight from hour to hour, and the effect of moisture-laden air in the modification of the intensity, has been automatically recorded by an electric device.
The Resonant Recorder. Records of time, as short as a thousandth part of a second, has been obtained, enabling the most accurate determination of the latent or perception period of the plant, and the velocity of its nervous impulse.
The Conductivity Balance for Nervous Impulse. This new method enables the determination of the effect of various drugs in the enhancement or depression of nervous impulse in plant and in animal.
The Electric Probe. By the invention of this device, it has been possible to localise the nervous tissue in the interior of the plant, as also the pulsating layer of cells by which movement of sap in trees is maintained.
Mechanical Recorder for Plants. A great advance in plant-physiology has been rendered possible by this instrument which records
