428 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



And now as to the theory ©f oil. I have had considerable experience 

 with coal, and I can say that I never detected the least smell of petrc^leiim 

 in any coal mine. A theory has been advanced that oil is derived frorn the 

 combination of the atoms of hydrogen and carbon in the higher forms of 

 vegetable organisms that lived in. previous ages of the world and flourished 

 when these rocks were deposited ; and I believe this to be the true thcor3% 

 For instance, we can go into the coal mines of Ohio and there find fishes 

 without a fin ov scale wanting, and all the bones and skin will be petrified, 

 but all the animal parts are bituminized. I brought down with me from 

 Oil Creek a specimen of one of these series of rocks that extend across t!ie 

 great basin of the United States, and which is composed of what I suppose 

 to be tlM3 organic part of plants. I have seen trees of this kind of plant, 

 many hundred specimens of them. I have sent some to the State collection 

 at Albany this summer. Our scientific men have already examined some 

 fifty species of animals, plants, insects and reptiles. 



Another theory has lately been broached and which has much plausi- 

 bility, and that is, that the vast amount of limestone of the Silurian and 

 lower Devonian systems throws off carbonic acid gas, which ascending, 

 meets with water percolating from, above, tlie gas parts with a definite 

 proportion of its carbon, Avhich unites with a definite proportion of hydro- 

 gen from the water, and consequently we have a hydro-carbon ov petroleum. 



To this theory there are the following physical objections : Between the 

 limestone series of rocks and the most prolific of the oil-bearing rocks 

 there are many hundred feet, nay thousands of feet of clay deposits, or 

 shale rocks, which are impermeable to gas ; and we have yet to see how 

 gases can come up at least 6 or 6,000 feet, 'and finally meet with' water 

 at the surface and make that hydrocarbon we call. rock oil. I am inclined 

 to the opinion that the oil was formed about the time that these rocks were 

 laid down, probably a little later, through all the series of oil strata. We 

 have the Permian series, succeeding the coal formation, which also bears 

 oil ; then succeeds the red sand stone of New Jersey, and on the top of this 

 comes in the cretaceous, and on the top of this comes the tertiary in which 

 petroleum is found in California, but in otlier places it is found in the creta- 

 ceous. I have here also S(mie specimens collected during the summer. 

 This is a slate that is bitumenized, so much so as to burn (Dr. Stevens 

 here lighted a piece of this slate). When this bitumenized slate is distilled 

 it yields an oil. I do not think there is anything mysterious in the origin 

 of rock oil. Whenever animals and vegetables began to live, in the sea or 

 on the land, or both, the elements of oil were then combined in higher 

 forms by the power of vital chemistry, than simple atoms of carL-on and 

 hydrogen. When these combinations were broken up by the deatii and 

 decay of the animal or plant, the ever-varying and inconstant atoms could 

 then come together in other proportions, forming, as the case might be, 

 coal, peat, bog-butter, bitumen, petroleum or gas. 



Oil, then, is not confined to any one series of rocks, nor any specific 

 strata, but may be found in aiiy rock whicli had the necessary conditions 

 at the time of its formation. 



Prof. Fleury read a short paper on petroleum, after which it was decided 

 to commence the discussion of " the m;>.nufacture of salt " at the next 

 meeting. Adjourned. 



