JUNE 21, 1912] 
of the faculty, resigned the chair of obstetrics 
and was made professor emeritus of obstet- 
rics. Dr. Paulus A. Irving, who has moved 
to Farmville, Va., was made emeritus pro- 
fessor of pediatrics. Dr. John F. Winn, 
formerly professor of clinical obstetrics, was 
elected professor of obstetrics, and Dr. Vir- 
ginius Harrison associate professor of the 
same branch. Dr. Francis W. Upshur was 
chosen professor of materia medica and 
therapeutics, and Dr. C. Howard Lewis was 
made professor of pharmacology and also as- 
sociate professor of physiology, these two 
physicians dividing the chair which was 
formerly held by Dr. Virginius Harrison. 
Dr. EK. ©. L. Miller was elected professor of 
bacteriology and physiologic chemistry. 
Mr. Harry N. Eaton, A.M. (Harvard, 706), 
instructor in geology in the University of 
Pittsburgh, has been appointed assistant pro- 
fessor of geology in the Pennsylvania State 
College. 
AT a recent meeting of the Yale Corpora- 
tion, Jacob Parsons Schaeffer, M.D., Ph.D., 
was promoted from assistant professor to be 
professor of anatomy in the Yale Medical 
School. 
NatHanieL CorTLANDT Curtis, professor of 
architecture in the Alabama Polytechnic In- 
stitute, has recently been elected to the chair 
of architecture in Tulane University of 
Louisiana. 
E. S. McCanpuiss, a graduate of Purdue 
University of the class of 1908, has been ap- 
pointed instructor in civil engineering in the 
Missouri School of Mines. 
Proressor B. H. Hrpsarp, of the Iowa 
State College, has been appointed associate 
professor of agricultural economics in the 
College of Agriculture of the University of 
Wisconsin. 
Francis E. Luoyp, for four years professor 
of botany in the Alabama Polytechnic Insti- 
tute, and plant physiologist to the Alabama 
Experiment Station, has been appointed Mac- 
Donald professor of botany in McGill Uni- 
versity. Professor Lloyd’s address will re- 
main unchanged till September 10 next. 
SCIENCE 
961 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 
THE DOME THEORY OF THE COASTAL PLAIN 
To tHe Epiror or Science: Recently the 
writer’s attention has been called to an art- 
icle published in Science of April 5 by Mr. 
G. D. Harris in which he claims the entire 
credit for the discovery and promulgation of 
the “dome theory” of the accumulation 
of oil in the Gulf coastal plain. The state- 
ments in this paper are so misleading to those 
unfamiliar with the history of the develop- 
ment of this region, that the writer feels it 
necessary to state briefly some of the facts and 
to quote some of the geologists who were fa- 
miliar with the early work. 
The article in question is as follows: 
OIL CONCENTRATION ABOUT SALT DOMES 
In several national, state and private publica- 
tions the writer has called attention to the re- 
markable concretionary growth and bodily move- 
ment upwards of huge masses of rock salt in 
Cenozoie deposits along the Gulf border. The 
bearing of the structures produced in the neigh- 
boring beds by such growths and movements on 
oil concentration was duly set forth in Bulletin 
429 of the U. S. Geological Survey. Recently he 
has had the opportunity of testing the value of 
his ‘‘dome theory’’ for locating oil ‘‘pools’’ in a 
region far away from any known oil occurrences. 
Reference is here made to Pine Prairie, south 
central Louisiana, where the Myles Mineral Com- 
pany has had the courage to try out the theory 
and has discovered by the means a new oil field. 
The director writes: ‘‘I consider this a most re- 
markable vindication of a theory originated by 
you, and we attribute a large measure of our 
success thus far to your advice.’’” 
Space should not be taken here to discuss the 
probable exact location of oil in connection with 
these domes; that is a matter depending largely 
on the approach of the salt domes to the surface, 
size, location, ete. These matters have been out- 
lined at least in the U. S. Geological Bulletin 
already referred to. But the location of oil by 
means of a theory unheard of ten years ago does 
seem worthy of record at this time. Another fact 
that should be impressed upon the mind of the 
publie now is the absolute worthlessness of stocks 
in companies putting down wells ‘‘near’’ the dis- 
