October 23, 1919] 



NATURE 



155 



scientific activity whicli involves a regular per- 

 sonal and intimate relationship between men of 

 different nationalities that is affected by the action 

 of these academies. The question, therefore, 

 simply resolves itself into this. Is it pos- 

 sible that an international scientific meeting 

 in which the belligerent countries sit side by 

 side can, at the present moment, lead to 

 any satisfactory results, or tend towards that 

 reconciliation which the neutral countries very 

 naturally and legitimately hope for? There can 

 be but few w'ho will answer that question in the 

 affirmative, and it is doubtful whether those few 

 would include anyone who has had experience 

 of international meetings before the war. The 

 questions discussed at these meetings frequently 

 touch national interests or national ambitions, be 

 it only a discussion whether units adopted in one 

 country shall be universally accepted. It often 

 requires tactful leadership and a conciliatory dis- 

 position on the part of everyone present to steer 

 an international meeting to a successful issue. 



The matter is, to a great extent, decided for 

 us by Article 282 of the Treaty of Peace which 

 Germany has ratified. According to that article, 

 " treaties, conventions, and agreements of an 

 economic and technical character " not included in 

 a specified list cease to be operative. That this 

 article was intended to cover conventions on scien- 

 tific matters appears from the list of exceptions, 

 in which the Metric Convention and the Agri- 

 cultural Institute at Rome are included. 



In view of the strong feelings of rese;itment 

 which still exist between the belligerent nations, 

 feelings shared by the great majority of their 

 members, the alternatives possible to the allied 

 academies were either to discontinue international 

 unions or to proceed as they have done. The 

 former course, not perhaps very harmful in some 

 branches of science, would have been fatal in 

 others, and in coming to a decision they have had 

 to give the foremost consideration to the interests 

 of science. It is intelligible that, both in the 

 review of the past and in the outlook of the future, 

 neutral opinion should differ from ours ; but we 

 may be confident that the academies of the 

 nations to which the signatories of the appeal 

 belong will, in considering the invitations which 

 are to be sent to them, be guided in their response 

 by the same interest for the future of scientific 

 progress which lies at the heart of the allied 

 academies. 



EVOLUTION OF OSTRICH PLUMES. 



pROF. J. E. DUERDEN has published (Bul- 

 A letin No. 7, 1918, Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Union of South Africa, pp. 39, 12 figs.) a 

 fourth report on his breeding experiments with 

 ostriches at the Grootfontein School of Agricul- 

 ture. His work is full of interest, both theoreti- 

 cally and practically. Birds brought from Nigeria 

 have 33-39 first-row feathers on each wing, 

 NO. 2608, VOL. 104] 



with an arithmetical mean of 36"54. If these 

 imported birds represent a pure line, the likelihood 

 is that the numerical variations are fluctuating 

 somatic modifications, and that no amount of 

 selection will increase the average number of 

 plumes beyond that given. If the imported birds 

 represent a mixed population of several pure lines, 

 only appearing pure as a whole because of 

 their small differences, it should be possible to 

 obtain higher averages by always selecting as 

 breeders the birds giving the highest number of 

 plumes. 



It turns out that Cape birds have the same 

 number of plumes as the wild Nigerian birds, and 

 it appears, therefore, that during the fifty years 

 of ostrich farming in South Africa no advance 

 whatever has been made on the number of plumes 

 originally present on the wild bird. For farmers 

 have always bred for quality ; quantity has never 

 been taken into account. As regards the number 

 of plumes, ostrich-breedifig has been carried on 

 altogether indiscriminately, and no advance has 

 been made. 



Among the Cape birds in the Grootfontein flock 

 there have been two cases of 42 plumes to the 

 first row. One of these met with a fatal accident; 

 the other bred true. The 42-plumed bird might 

 be regarded as a noyel mutation, but there is a 

 more plausible view. Recent studies on the ostrich 

 afford strong evidence that the wings of its 

 ancestors were much better covered with feathers 

 than is the case to-day. There has been retro- 

 gression, and it is still continuing. The 42-plumed 

 wing is a survival of an ancestral condition. Very 

 interesting facts are communicated in regard to 

 the retrogressive or degenerative processes which 

 are still going on in the ostrich's wing. The 

 retrogression proceeds in one part of the wing 

 quite independently of the other parts. Thus, 

 apart from the plumes altogether, the third finger 

 shows retrogression. It is almost buried in the 

 flesh, and the claw which some books describe has 

 never been found on the hundreds of birds coming 

 under Prof. Duerden's observation. But a study 

 of the plumes lends no countenance to the common 

 view that degeneration takes place by slow, con- 

 tinuous stages. There may be the full presence of 

 particular plumes in one individual, and their total 

 absence in others; but there is not a gradual 

 passage from full expression to the vanishing- 

 point. The degeneracy of an organ may stop at 

 any stage according to the number of constituent 

 factors which happen to be lost. We are apt to 

 think of the degeneracy as a somatic affair, 

 whereas it is germinal. 



As to the possibilities of the 42-plumed survival, 

 no chicks have yet been produced from the 42- 

 plumed cock mated with a hen with the same 

 number of plumes, for no hen has been forth- 

 coming. But a score or so of chicks have been 

 reared from the 42-plumed cock crossed with dif- 

 ferent 36-plumed hens, and these showed an in- 

 teresting series of numbers from 37 to 43. It 

 seems probable, therefore, that if the 42-plumed 



