July 18, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



87 



been appointed dean of the school of pharmacy 

 of Northwestern University, to succeed the 

 late Oscar Oldberg. 



Dean David Kinley, of the graduate school, 

 University of Illinois, has been elected vice- 

 president of the university for one year be- 

 ginning July 1, 1913, at the meeting of the 

 trustees on July 2. He succeeds Dr. T. J. 

 Burrill, who retired from active duties last 

 year. 



Alexander George McAdie, professor of 

 meteorology in the Weather Bureau and di- 

 rector of the California climate section, has 

 been elected director of the Blue Hill Observa- 

 tory and professor of meteorology at Harvard 

 University. 



Dr. F. J. Alway, head professor of agricul- 

 tural chemistry in the University of Nebraska 

 and chemist of the Nebraska Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of soil chemistry and chief of the divi- 

 sion of soils in the University of Minnesota. 

 Dr. Fred Upson, of the University of Chicago, 

 has been appointed to succeed Dr. Alway in 

 the University of Nebraska. 



Dr. James E. Nydegger, of the United 

 States Public Health Service, has been elected 

 professor of tropical medicine in the Univer- 

 sity of Maryland. 



Mr. W. G. Fearnsides, fellow and lecturer 

 in natural sciences at Sidney Sussex College, 

 and demonstrator in petrology in the Univer- 

 sity of Cambridge, has been appointed to the 

 Sorby chair of geology at Sheffield University. 



VISCUSSION AND COBEESPONDENCE 

 NOMENCLATURE IN PALEONTOLOGY 



To THE Editor of Science: I ask the cour- 

 tesy of your columns to explain certain allu- 

 sions in a recent contribution which seem to 

 have been somewhat misunderstood by my 

 good friend Dr. Peale. In criticizing a prev- 

 alent custom in vertebrate paleontology of 

 identifying as to genus and species very frag- 

 mentary material which is not really exactly 

 identifiable, I spoke of its having " sadly mis- 

 led " him into presenting as conclusive evi- 



dence of identity in age a correspondence in 

 fauna (i. e., in the fauna as listed) that was 

 really no evidence at all. The criticism was 

 in no wise directed at Dr. Peale, as he seems 

 to suppose, nor at individual vertebrate pale- 

 ontologists, but at a prevalent custom in this 

 branch of science which I think ought to be 

 amended. Naturally, Dr. Peale is perfectly 

 justified in depending upon the published 

 lists (if they have not since been criticized or 

 amended or new and better evidence secured) ; 

 and vertebrate paleontologists are presumably 

 justified in following the customs of their 

 tribe. But this is a vicious custom, and the 

 fact that it misled so eminent a stratigrapher 

 was cited as an instance of the harm it does. 

 Dr. Peale finds it " interesting to have a 

 vertebrate paleontologist make the statement 

 that ' correspondence in fauna is not conclu- 

 sive evidence of identity in age.' " Well, I 

 am not so rash as to say that it is, without 

 making a number of reservations as to ade- 

 quacy, presentation and interpretation of the 

 evidence, etc. (for certain other considerations 

 see article in Bull. Geol. Soc. America for 

 1913, p. 283). But I did not make the state- 

 ment he attributes to me, if I understand the 

 meaning of words, and considering the con- 

 text in which I was using them in the cited 

 article. I was discussing faunal lists based 

 upon specimens too fragmentary for exact 

 identification. Such a " correspondence in 

 fauna " is not conclusive proof of identity in 

 age. That does not mean that vertebrate 

 paleontology has no place in stratigraphic 

 geology. Fossil vertebrates, provided the 

 material is adequate and the identifications 

 correct, afford a much more exact geological 

 timepiece than do invertebrates or plants. 

 But the material is always scanty and often 

 inadequate, and the degree to which this is 

 true must in each case be taken into consid- 

 eration in interpreting their evidence. Fur- 

 thermore, owing partly to the greater exact- 

 ness of our timepiece, we are conscious of 

 certain normal deviations from accuracy — if 

 one may so speak — regional, environmental, 

 etc., which although their effects upon the 

 existing flora as well as fauna are obvious 



