CARBON AND TI1K HYDROCARBONS 365 



posed that naphtha was produced by the action of water penetrating 

 through the crevices of the strata during the upheaval of mountain 

 chains, r ' 7 because water with iron carbide ought to give iron oxide 

 and hydrocarbons. 58 Direct experiment proves that the so-called 

 spiegeleisen (manganiferous iron, rich in chemically-combined car- 

 bon) when treated with acids gives liquid hydrocarbons, 59 which in 



57 During the upheaval of mountain ranges crevasses would be formed at the peaks 

 with openings upwards, and at the foot of the mountains with openings downwards. 

 These c-raeks in course of time fill up, but the younger the mountains (the Alleghany 

 mountains are, without doubt, more recent ; they were formed during the tertiary epoch) 

 the fresher the cracks ; through them water must gain access deep into the recesses of 

 the earth to an extent that could not occur on the level (on plains). The situation of 

 naphtha at the foot of mountain chains is the principal argument in my hypothesis. 



Another fundamental reason is the consideration of the mean density of the earth. 

 Cavendish, Airy, Cornu, and many others who have investigated the subject by various 

 methods, found that, taking water =1, the mean density of the earth is nearly 5'5. As. 

 at the surface water and all rocks (sand, clay, limestone, granite, &c.) have a density less 

 than 3, it is evident (as solid substances are but slightly compressible even under the- 

 greatest pressure) that inside the earth there are substances of a greater density 

 namely, not less than 7 or 8. What conclusion can. then be arrived at ? Something 

 heavy contained in the bosom of the earth must be scattered not only on its surface, but 

 in the whole solar system, because everything tends to show that the sun and planets 

 proceed from the same material, and, according to the hypothesis of Laplace and Kant, 

 it is most probable, and even ought to be held, that the earth and planets are but frag- 

 ments of the solar atmosphere which have had time to cool considerably and become 

 masses semi-liquid inside and solid outside, forming planets and satellites. The sun, 

 amongst other heavy elements, contains a great deal of iron, as shown by spectrum 

 analysis. There is also much of it in an oxidised condition on the surface of the earth. 

 Meteoric stones, carried as fragments of the planets in the solar system and sometimes 

 falling upon the earth, consisting of siliceous rocks similar to terrestrial ones, often con- 

 tain either dense masses of iron (for example, the Pallosovo iron preserved in the St. 

 Petersburg Academy of Sciences) or granular masses (for instance, the Okhansk meteo- 

 rite of 1886). For this reason it is possible that the interior of the earth contains much 

 iron in a metallic state. This might be expected from the hypothesis of Laplace, for 

 the iron must have been compressed into a liquid at that period when the other com- 

 ponent parts of the earth were still strongly heated, and oxides of iron could not yet be 

 formed. The iron was covered with slags (mixtures of silicates, like glass fused 

 together with rocky matter), which did not allow it to burn at the expense of the oxygen 

 of the atmosphere and water, just at that time when the temperature of the earth was 

 very high. Carbon was in the same state ; its oxides were also capable of dissociation 

 (Deville) ; it is also but slightly volatile, and has an affinity for iron, and iron carbide is 

 found in meteoric stones. On this account the supposition of the existence of iron 

 carbides in the interior of the earth was drawn by me from many indications, some of 

 which are confirmed by the fact that granular pieces of iron have been found in some 

 basalts (ancient lava) as well as in meteoric stones. 



58 The following is the typical equation for this formation : 



3Fe m C w + 4,,,H 2 O = 7nFe 3 O 4 (magnetic oxide) +C 5n H 8m . 



59 Cloez investigated the hydrocarbons formed when cast-iron is dissolved in hydro- 

 chloric acid, and found C,,H 2n and others. I treated crystalline manganiferous cast-iron, 

 with the same acid, and obtained a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons exactly similar to 

 natural naphtha in taste, smell, and reaction. The occurrence of iron with carbon during 

 the formation r of the earth is all the more probable because those elements predominate 

 in nature which have small atomic weights, and among them the most widely-diffused, 

 the most difficultly-fusible, and therefore the most easily-condensed (Chap. XV.) are 



