August 9, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



173 



Brisson: "Regnum animale in Classes IX dis- 



trib." 1762. 

 Bnmnicli: "Zoologiae Fundamenta praeleetionibus 



academicis accommodata. " 1772. 

 Gronovius: "Zoophylaeii Gronoviana Fasciculus 



I." 1763. 

 Gronovius : ' ' Zoophyladum Gronovianum, ' ' etc. 



1781. 

 Geoffrroy: "Histoire abregee des Inseetes, etc." 



1762. 

 "Museum Calonnianum. " 1797. 

 Okto : ' ' Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte. ' ' 1816. 



This list will be enlarged by the commis- 

 sion. 



rV. Also, in determining matters of prior- 

 ity, certain other publications shall be ig- 

 nored, among them articles in encyclopedias, 

 popular works of travel, journals of hunting 

 and fishing, catalogues, garden journals, 

 agricultural periodicals, political and local 

 newspapers and other non-scientific journals 

 which are without influence in systematic 

 science. 



Those who are willing to suWscribe to these 

 additions and emendations of the nomencla- 

 torial laws are earnestly requested to sign and 

 send to Professor Dr. A. Brauer, Zoologisches 

 Museum, Invalidenstrasse, Berlin, Germany, 

 a postal card to the effect " I am in sympathy 

 with the propositions of the German Zoolog- 

 ical Society to restrict the law of priority and 

 authorize my name to he appended to them." 



It is hardly necessary to add anything to 

 the matters referred to above. A single 

 glance at the list of generic names which it is 

 proposed to have removed from the rules will 

 convince any one that the changes otherwise 

 necessary would result in endless confusion 

 without a single gain to science. The other 

 proposals also will appeal to all who are not 

 firmly wedded to an inflexible law with all 

 the deplorable results that must follow. It is 

 only by having many names appended to the 

 proposals that the changes can be carried 

 through the next congress. It is to be re- 

 gretted that the time selected for the Monaco 

 meeting is such that most Americans will be 

 prevented from attending, but this has seemed 



necessary from the matter of climate and the 

 times of the European vacations. 



J. S. KlNGSLEY 



DOME THEORIES AS APPLIED TO GULP COAST 

 GEOLOGY 



To THE Editor of Science : In a recent 

 number of Science (June 21) is found a com- 

 munication by Captain A. F. Lucas in which 

 he states without any qualifications that the 

 undersigned " claims the entire credit for the 

 discovery and promulgation of ' the dome 

 theory ' of the accumulation of oil in the 

 Gulf Coastal Plain." The statements are 

 found so " misleading " that he feels it his 

 duty to correct them. This he endeavors to 

 do by quoting the article in full and follow- 

 ing the same by quotations from those fa- 

 miliar with oil development along this coast. 



The misinterpretations the Captain has put 

 upon my article seem to have their origin in 

 our different conceptions of what is implied 

 by a " dome theory." That various theories 

 at various times, each with some excellent 

 and some weak points, have been suggested to 

 account for the dome structures of our coast 

 we know full well. But that there is an ac- 

 knowledged one styled "the dome theory" is 

 news to the undersigned. That this writer 

 does claim the credit for the discovery and 

 promulgation of " a dome theory " he will 

 have to admit. Others will have to make 

 similar admissions. Even the Captain men- 

 tions entering Texas with a " nascent dome 

 theory " in his mind. Possibly this one after 

 successful birth has grown into " the dome 

 theory." However, judging from the tenor 

 of the Captain's article, including quotations, 

 it seems that the phrase, " the dome theory," 

 has often been used to imply simply short 

 anticlinal or quaquavasal structures with lo- 

 cal oil concentrations. If such be the gen- 

 eral acceptation of the phrase then the writer 

 must frankly admit that the " credit for the 

 discovery and promulgation of " the dome 

 theory of the accumulatien of oil in the Gulf 

 coastal plain is not his. The tendency of 

 hydrocarbons to accumulate in anticlines. 



