Wounded Plants by Jagadish Chandra Bose

  Wounded Plants by Jagadish Chandra Bose

About the Essay

This essay is an excerpt from Jagadish Chandra's lecture delivered at the Bose Institute on Feb 07, 1919. It was published in Anand Bazar Patrika on Feb 10, 1919. Jagadish Chandra Bose draws our attention to the fact that our reaction to human tragedy and that of the trees and plants is altogether different. We are not sympathetic to the plants because they are mute and they cannot cry out their pain. Bose shows that plants also have feelings of happiness and sadness. They also experience birth, growth, and death. The essay sensitizes all of us to develop in us sympathetic attitude towards plants and nature in general.

In the first paragraph, the author catches our attention to the damage caused to the vegetative world by wars. He quotes the example of World War I that spread over the whole of Western Europe. The beautiful fields of France and the clear blue sky were under a pall of battle smoke. A dense gloom was spread everywhere. The cries of the dying and wounded people were drowned in a hoarse roar.

 The author now points out that in such an adverse situation, only the bond of sympathy unites the suffering humanity. After that, the writer says that in the Cosmic Drama of life, plants are also the play-things of destiny like us. They also face silently all the ups and downs of life: light and darkness, the warmth of summer and frost of winter, drought and rain, the gentle breeze and whirling tornadoes, life, and death. The rude shocks of life do stir them but no cry is raised in the answer.

After that, the author, again, tries to make us understand as to how, we all human beings realise the pain suffered by our fellow beings. When a man receives a tragic blow or shock, his answering cry makes us realise that he is in some trouble. But the speechless cannot do so. He is unable to express his sorrow or pain in words. In that case, the mute person may express his feelings of pain by his agonised expressions on his face or by the convulsive movement of his body parts. Thus, we all human beings realise each other’s pain through fellow-feeling.

The writer quotes an example of a frog to prove that the animals and small creatures are also mute and they show their pain through the convulsive movement of their bodies. When a frog is struck with some object, it does not make a cry out of pain. It shows only its convulsive movement. But, it does not mean that the frog has not suffered any pain. A person who has a sensitive heart can feel the pain suffered by these so-called lower animals also. He has sympathy for all the creatures on the earth.

The author also explains that human sympathy is often shown to the superior or to the equal and not to the creatures that are thought to be of lower kinds. Many may also doubt that the lowly and the depressed possess the fine sense of feeling joy and sorrow and to oppose tyranny on them. The author seems to feel bad by explaining that human attitude is discriminating to the different grades of his own species. If this is the case with most of human beings, then, there is no possibility that they may have any sympathy for the frog in the pain.

Test of Livingness

The author proceeds to explain the test of liveliness now. He says that responsive movements are the tests to ascertain how much vitality or life is there in the living beings. The living beings answer to a shock automatically. The most lively gives the most energetic response, the dying gives the feeblest (weakest) and the dead give no answer to any shock. Thus life may be tested by the reactions or answers to the shocks the living beings give automatically. Next, the author says that the responsive movements of the creatures may be recorded by some suitable instrument. The responses to similar shocks will remain uniform if the living tissue always remains the same. But it does not happen because the living beings are constantly changing due to the changes in the environment. Sometimes we are in high spirits while at some other time we may be at the lowest in depression. Thus we pass through numerous phases between two extremes. An individual is the product of numerous changes in the mind. Our present, as well as our past, has a vital role to play in the making of an individual personality. The sum total of all such characteristics distinguishes one individual from the other.

The author also tells us that the inner reality of different living beings may be revealed by shocks and the responses received due to them.

Effect of Wound

Now the author proceeds to explain the effect of wounds on the plants. He says that three separate investigations have been carried out on the wound on plants caused by human activities or the environment. The first is the shock effect. It retards or stops the growth of plants. Then the second investigation was performed. It recorded the change of spontaneous pulsation of the leaflet of the Telegraph plant. It was found that death or decay spreads from the cut point of the leaflet and it reaches the throbbing tissue. Consequently, it becomes decayed or dead. The author says that experiments are in progress to record the march (movement) of death or decay on the leaflet that had a cut end. Previously it died in 24 hours but now it has been kept alive for more than a week.

Paralysis of Sensibility

The author talks about another series of investigations. These were carried out on a cut-off leaf and also on its parent plant mimosa.  The investigation shows that the histories of the wounded plant and the cut-off plant were quite different. The act of cutting the leaf had caused a big shock to its parent plant. A shock wave was spread to the whole of the plant. All the leaves of the plant remained in depression for several hours. No response came from them. In a way, the shock had paralysed the plant for hours together. Gradually, the leaves regain their sensitivity. The dethatched leaf was put into a nourishing solution. It recovers very soon and it shows that it has regained its lost energy. It continued for twenty-four hours. But after it, a curious change was noted on the leaf. The power of its responses begins to decrease at a quick pace. The nourishing solution could not keep it alive continuously. At last, the leaf had to surrender in front of the ultimate death.