A Postscript Upon the ” Origin (and Development) of Species”

Abstract

In the foregoing article Dr. Dighton Thomas has efficiently dispelled the somewhat widely-spread illusion that Foraminifera, per se, especially certain genera and species, indicate the occurrence of mineral oil at a given depth. There are certain ascertained phenomena which indicate the presence of oil in a district, and it is when the ‘show’ has been observed and noted, that the importance of the Foramiriifera to the ‘petroleum geologist’ becomes apparent. A word of warning to the young geologist, who has now become a necessary official attached to every petroleum company of any importance, should perhaps be added: Let him firmly ignore what Earland has rightly called “the spate of literature” and I have called “the proliferation of nomenclature”. The in dustrious Dr. Hans E. Thalmann has recorded three hundred and eight papers on the Foraminifera published in the years 1931 and 1932, and to these may be added scores of later papers noted in the “Zoological Record” and in the lists periodically published by Dr. Cushman since that date.