30 



NATURE 



[May 13, 1897 



alone ; but it certainly seems probable, and I have no wish to 

 raise such an objection. 



If we admit, then, that combination does occur when sul- 

 phuric acid is dissolved in water, as there is much evidence to 

 show, need we abandon the dissociation theory i I think not ; 

 in fiict, Mr. Pickering admits that my alternative explanation 

 meets the case under discussion. 



Mr. Pickering has made no attempt to explain the electrical 

 phenomena I described in your issue of April 29, by any means 

 other than the assumption of dissociation of the ions from each 

 other. I know the idea of such dissociation is abhorrent to 

 people who arc fortunate enough to possess an orthodox chemical 

 conscience ; but, till some one has accounted for the electrical 

 relations in another way, its acceptance seems to mc to be a 

 necessary consequence of the facts. 



I cannot quite see the force of Mr. Pickering's objection to 

 the idea that the ions are linked with one or more solvent mole- 

 cules. There is no need to assume the existence of definite 

 compounds, which could be crystallised out and handled. If 

 we admit the presence of charged ions free from each other, 

 electrical forces will certainly exist between them and the 

 solvent. We know too little, as yet, about the mutual relations 

 of atoms and their charges, to picture exactly what occurs ; but 

 these forces must produce some sort of connection between the 

 ions and the molecules of solvent. This connection, of course, 

 (>nly remains unmodified as long as the dissolved body keeps 

 in solution. 



Such a view of the dissociation theory seems to me to offer 

 many advantages. It may be contrary to some opinions, but I 

 do not think ».wj facts liave yet been pointed out which refute 

 it. Till they are, it may possibly be of some use as a working 

 hypothesis in the investigation of that complicated structure 

 wliich we call a solution. W. C. Dampier Whktham. 



Trinity College, Cambridge, May 5. 



On the Feathers of " Hesperornis." 

 A NUMBER of years ago I published in Nature (Decem- 

 ber 25, 1890, p. 176) my opinion " On the Affinities of Hesper- 

 ornis,''' agreeing, at the time, with Prof. D'Arcy Thompson and 

 others, that those toothed birds of the Kansas Cretaceous beds 

 saw their nearest allies in existing birds in the Loons and Grebes, 

 or in the typical Colymbidine assemblage. In other words, the 

 now-living pygopodous birds, such as Urinator, Colymlnis, and 

 so forth, are, by descent, the modern representatives of the 

 ancient Hespo-ornithidiv, whether that descent or origin be 

 direct or indirect. There are osteological characters, which the 

 limitations of space will forbid dwelling upon here, that tend to 

 convince me of the probability of the GiQh<is(Podicipoidea) being 

 an earlier offshoot of the pygopodine stem than the Urinatoroidea, 

 and so more nearly related to Hesperornis than the latter birds. 



Re-stimulated by a brief article, by Prof. S. W. Williston, in 

 The Kansas University Quarterly (vol. v., July 1896, pp. 53, 

 54, plate ii.), entitled "One of the Dermal Coverings of 

 Hesperornis'' Prof. O. C. Marsh takes occasion, in a recent 

 issue of Nature (No. 1432, vol. Iv., April 8, 1897, p. 534), to 

 once more advance the theory— and one which originated with 

 him, and, fortunately, has received but meagre support — of 

 Hesperornis having been nothing more nor less than some peculiar 

 kind of "a swimming ostrich.'" This view of its laxonomic 

 position has never been accepted by the present writer ; and it 

 would seem that many other comparative anatomists experience 

 quite as much difficulty in believing that those ancient divers 

 were any more " swimming ostriches '" than the modern types 

 of the Strut hi oni dee are a sort of group of gigantic terrestrio- 

 cursorial divers. 



Prof. Marsh is not the only writer that has been led astray in 

 some parts cf avian classification by employing what have been 

 called "struthious characters" in avian osteology, and now he 

 thinks his views are supported by the recent discovery of 

 Williston, referred to above. Having carefully examined the 

 published plate of the latter author, I must say that I am quite 

 sceptical as to what he believes to be long tarsal feathers in 

 Hesperornis. Surely, in the figure, the resemblance to feathers 

 is very remote ; and, quite as surely, long, drooping plumaceous 

 feathers hanging down to the feet in a big, powerful diver, would 

 in no way whatever assist it in either swimming or diving. In 

 fact, just so soon as these soft, plumaceous feathers became 

 thoroughly wet, they would naturally form a serious impediment 

 to the proper use of the pelvic limbs in their forward and back- 

 NO. 1437, VOL. 56] 



ward strokes ; and one has but to study the action of these limits 

 in swimming, in our modern Loons, to appreciate this point. 

 That Hespero7-nis possessed some kind of a plumaceous plumage, 

 however, I long ago believed, and see no reason to change that 

 opinion now.^ 



Plumaceous plumage was very likely far more prevalent 

 among the earliest birds in time, than it is now among the 

 modern types ; and this applies absolutely to not a few characters 

 in the skeleton. The latter, along whatever line we may trace 

 them, are evidences of an approach reptile-wards, and by no 

 means always point to struthionine affinity. Certain peculiarities 

 in the pelvis, and at the base of the cranium, when associated 

 with certain others, have, as I say, been unfortunately termed 

 "struthious characters," and, with this mistaken idea ojDerative, 

 our more superficial avian anatomists can see but little beyond 

 "ostrich" in either Finainon or Apteryx. Not so, however, is 

 this the case with the more profound researchers, of which Prof. 

 Max Fiirbringer is so able a representative. There is no more 

 ostrich in Hesperornis than there is diver in Struthio — how 

 much of the latter there may be, I willingly leave Prof. Marsh to 

 consider. „ R. W. ShuI'EI.dt. 



April 28. 



On Augury from Combat of Shell-fish. 



In his "Jozankidan Shiii " (published about 1767, tome i. 

 fol. 3, a) Vuasa Shimbei, a Japanese literatus (1708-81), writes 

 on this subject thus : — " Noma Samanoshin narrated that the 

 destiny of a belligerent could well be foretold by means of the 

 ' Tanishi.' - If two groups consisting each of three of this shell- 

 fish be placed in opposite corners of a tray, the three animals 

 representing the future conquerors would advance, while the 

 others, which are doomed to defeat, would withdraw. This 

 method was approved by repeated experiments during the 

 siege of Osaka [1615]." Every time the experiment was- 

 carried on, it never failed for the three 'Tanishi,' respectively 

 designated Hideyori, the lord of the castle, and his two 

 generals, Ono and Kinuira, to be driven in corners by other 

 three which were representing the leaders of the besieging 

 army. Prince lyeyasu, Ii, and Todo. Thence it is confirmed that 

 there is no better method of foretelling the decision of a war 

 [here Non:a's narrative ends]. The same method is given in 

 detail in ' Wu-pei-chi ' [by Mau Yuen-i, completed 1621], which 

 is to be consulted for its particulars." Unfortunately all four 

 copies in the British Museum of the Chinese work, here referred 

 to, are wanting vol. clxxxvi., wherein further details of the 

 method are said to be found. 



Besides,, two older Chinese works, both of which I have never 

 seen, viz. Fung Ching's " Pan-yu-ki " ■• (written circa 990-94) 

 and Luh Wei's " Kwei-che-chi " ^ (twelfth century) are said 

 to describe this method of augury to have been of old used in 

 the region of Ling-Nan (which comprised the present provinces 

 of Kwang-Tung and Kwang-Si). 



In connection with Yuasa's statement above quoted, the fol- 

 lowing notice, by Etienne Aymonier, of a Cambodian mode of 

 divination is equally interesting :— " Si une armee etrangere fait 

 invasion dans le royaume, beaucoup d'habitants prennent deux 

 A'hchau,^ placent au fond d'un bassin, d'un recipient, un peu de 

 sable pour faire une petite arene et assez d'eau pour recouvrir 

 les deux coquilles. lis allument des bougies et des baguettes 

 odoriferantes, invoquent lesdivinitesprotectricesdu royaume, les 

 prient d'indiquer Tissue de la guerre au moyen de cette petite 

 naumachie. Les Khchau representant les belligerants luttent 

 jusqu'a ce que I'un des deux soit culbute " " («' Notes sur les Cou- 



1 .See my article, "Feathered Forms of Other Days," The Century 

 Magazine, January 1886, p. 357. 



- " Tannigi arc the common black Land Snails gather'd for Food in 

 muddy Rice Fields. ..." (Kaempfer, "History of Japan," 1727, vol. i. 

 p. 141). It belongs to the genus Yiviparus, and is V. ja^onica, if I re- 

 member correctly. 



3 For this event see, e.g., Caron's "Account of Japan," in Pinkerton, 



Voyages and-Travels," i8ii, vol. vii. p. 616 ; " Diary of Richard Cocks," 

 1883, passim. 



■* Referred to in Li- Ye, " King-chai-ku-kin-tau " (written c. 1234, Brit. 

 Mus. copy, 15,316, d, tome iv. fol. 27, a). 



5 Quoted in the Grand Imperial Cyclopaedia, " Ku-kin-tu-shu-tseih- 

 chuig, sec. .\i.\. tome clxiii. sub. " Lo-pu-ki-shi," fol. 3, a. 



fi J. _Mour.a, in his " Vocabulaire Fran<;ais-Cambodgien, &c.," Paris, 

 1878, simply explains the word "khchau" as "coquille." From parallel 

 instances it is highly probable th.-it this is, too, a species of the Paludinidse. 

 .1 1.-?*^'^ notice reminds me of an old Japanese tradition, which is this. 



When the battle of Dannoura was about to be fought (iiSsHfor which 

 „ "'5 ^^ Adams, " History of J.ipan," 1874, vol. i. p. 36], Kumano-no- 

 Betto Tanso, a warlike priest, who was wavering in question which of the 



