634 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1330 



At Princeton University, William Lauder 

 Jones has been appointed professor of organic 

 chemistry. Charles Rogers, of the Museum of 

 JTatural History, has been appointed curator of 

 the biological museum. Charles Jones 

 Browne, head of the department of hygiene 

 and physical education at the University of 

 JNoiith Carolina, has been appointed to be an 

 assistant professor in that department. James 

 Alexander, on leave of absence for war service, 

 has been made an assistant professor of mathe- 

 matics. Professor Eaymond Smith Dugan 

 was promoted to a professorship of astronomy. 

 Pr. Carl C. Brdgham was appointed aissistant 

 professor of psychology, and Benjamin F. 

 Howell was raised to the rank of assistant 

 professor of geology. 



At the Carnegie Institute of Technology 

 Henry L. Moore, assistant professor of physics 

 at the Mississippi Agricultural College, will 

 be assistant professor of physics, Ruth E. 

 Canfield, instructor of ceramics at Alfred 

 University, instructor of ceramics and weav- 

 ing. James R. Everett, assistant professor of 

 mathematics at Baker University, and George 

 W. Hess, professor of mathematics at Bethany 

 College, will become instructors in mathe- 

 matics. 



Professor J. T. Wilson, professor of anat- 

 omy in the University of Sydney, has been 

 elected to the chair of anatomy at Cambridge, 

 rendered vacant by the death of Professor 

 Alexander Maealister. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE USE OF THE TERM FOSSIL 



There ia probably no word more widely 

 and loosely used by geologists than fossil. 

 Paleontology, the study of ancient life, is 

 literally the study of fossils ; and stratigraphy, 

 or the correlation of formations, is prin- 

 cipally dependent upon fossils as horizon 

 markers. The broad subject of historical 

 geology, or the evolution of the earth and 

 its organisms, is also largely a study of 

 fossils. All workers in the above mentioned 

 divisions of earth science would define a 

 fossil as the evidence of former life, no mat- 



ter how much they might disagree as to the 

 full and exact definition of the term. Un- 

 fortunately, however, the term is often used 

 by geologists in general as an adjective to 

 denote age of geologic magnitude; hence: 

 " fossil volcano," " fossil river channel," 

 " fossil sand dunes," etc. ; all of which objects 

 are obviously of inorganic origin. 



Fossil is derived from the Latin, fossilis, 

 " dug up or dug out." The latest edition of 

 the Century Dictionary defines the term as 

 follows : 



Any rook or mineral, or any mineral substance, 

 whether of an organic or inorganic nature, dug 

 out of the ground. SpeoiJ&eally, iu later geolog- 

 ical and mineralogioal use, anything that has been 

 buried by natural causes, or geologic agencies, and 

 bears in its form or chemical compositiou the evi- 

 dence that it is of organic origin. 



In spite of the above, there are literary 

 persons who use the adjective form of the 

 word in the sense of ancient or out-of-date; 

 i. e., " fossil poetry," " fossil statesman." 

 Sometimes the " bad use " of the word is 

 merely ludicrous, as in the case of a paleo- 

 botanist who frequently refers in the text to 

 the student of fossil plants as a " fossil 

 botanist." 



In the latest text-book of paleontology^ a 

 fossil is defined thus: "A fossil is the re- 

 mains of a plant or animal, or the record of 

 its presence, preserved in the rocks of the 

 earth." 



A definition more exact than any to be 

 found in the modern text books is proposed 

 as follows: A fossil is an ohject which indi- 

 cates former existence of an organism which 

 has heen huried and preserved hy geological 

 causes, previous to historic time. According 

 to this definition the mastodon preserved in 

 the arctic ice is a fossil; the leaf buried in 

 the gutter is not. The remains of an organ- 

 ism may be a true petrifaction and yet not 

 be a fossil. Fossil and petrification are not 

 synonymous. Simply because a species has 

 become extinct does not make it a fossil, even 

 if its remains are petrified, or the knowledge 



i"An Introduction to the Study of Fossils," 

 H. W. Shimer, Maomillan Co., 1914. 



