NALURE 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1896. 
PETROLEUM. 
Petroleum: a Treatise on the Geographical Distribution. 
and Geological Occurrence of Petroleum and Natural 
Gas; the Physical and Chemical Properties, Pro- 
duction and Refining of Petroleum and Ozokerite ; the 
Characters and Uses, Testing, Transport, and Storage 
of Petroleum Products ; and the Legislative Enactments 
relating thereto; together with a Description of the 
Shale Oil and allied Industries. By Boverton 
Redwood, F.R.S.E., F.I.C., Assoc.Inst.C.E., assisted 
by G. T. Holloway, Assoc.R.Coll.Sc., F.1.C., and others. 
2 vols. 4to. g00 pp. (London: C. Griffin and Co., 
Ltd., 1896.) 
Le Pétrole, Pasphalte et le bitume, au point de vue 
géologigue. By A. Jaccard. Professeur Geologie 
a FAcadémie Neuchatel. 1 vol., 8vo., 292 pp. (Paris: 
F. Alcan, 1896.) 
Petroleum : its Development and Uses. By R. Nelson 
Boyd, M. Inst. C.E. 1 vol. 8vo, 85 pp. (London: 
Whittaker and Co., 1896.) 
S 
A adopted a map of the world; and thereupon are 
indicated by red spots, the known localities of the 
occurrence of petroleum: so treated, only a few parts of 
the map remain undotted, and these are mostly those 
which, in the world, are either permanently ice or ocean- 
covered, or those which, such as Central Asia, Central 
Africa, and Central Brazil, are still but little explored. 
The universality, far from being confined to the geo- 
graphy of petroleum, is one of the main distinguishing 
features of this unique subject : the chemistry, geology, 
mining, technical applications, and legal and fiscal 
aspects, all demand, for their due elucidation, the 
most experienced experts, inasmuch as each of these 
aspects is of a quite special character, a peculiarity 
which, in its turn, arises from the fundamental fact that 
petroleum is unlike anything else among the world’s chief 
products. 
To write, or to compile, a comprehensive text-book on | 
petroleum demands, therefore, an acquaintance with | 
dissimilar subjects, and with varying walks of life, very 
rarely centred in one individual. 
will ever remain remarkable as the production of a man 
whose scientific attainments, and whose relation to the 
petroleum industries, were such that he, probably better 
than any other living man, was fitted to undertake | 
the task. 
But while the qualifications of Mr. Redwood singularly 
well fitted him for attacking a problem which even the 
German had not attempted, the inherent difficulties of 
compiling this treatise must be prominently kept before 
the mind in forming a judgment as to the quality of the 
authors work, and due allowance must be made for 
places where, to this geologist or to that chemist, to this 
inventor or to that lawyer, it might seem that the 
elaboration had been too restricted, or the facts presented 
too few. Certainly a sincere tribute must be paid to the 
great industry displayed in the production of this work, 
to the careful selection of its facts, to the eminent sense 
NO. 1417, VOL. 55] 
The present work is and | 
| 
frontispiece to his first volume, Mr. Redwood has | 
| are the most worthy of acceptance. 
of proportion shown in the marshalling of the latter, to 
the pure and lucid style, and especially to the wonderful 
fairness and judgment shown in briefly indicating the 
views of the principal disputants in the more contentious 
regions of its scope. The work contairis a vast volume 
of information, the errors are very few indeed, and to 
those familiar with the busy life of the author in the very 
vortex of petroleum matters, it will not be a matter of 
surprise to learn that the work is, whether treating of 
new petroleum fields, new methods of drilling, recent 
improvements in testing, or fresh legal enactments, 
modern in every sense of the word. 
Though in an encyclopedic work of this kind origin- 
ality is hardly expected, and is perhaps out of place, the 
author carries a curious, quite Plato-like, shrinking from 
the revealing of his individuality, to an unnecessary 
pitch: indeed, most readers will have to confess to 
some disappointment in being unable to get at Mr. 
Redwood’s own opinion on most of the debatable points 
connected with petroleum. Thus, Section iv., ‘The 
Origin of Petroleum and Natural Gas ”—one of the least 
satisfactory of the eleven sections into which the work is 
divided, is summed up in the following words: 
“Probably, on the whole, the Hofer-Engler views at 
present have the largest number of adherents, and in 
respect, at any rate, to certain descriptions of petroleum, 
At the same time, a 
careful study of the subject leads to the conclusion that 
| some petroleum is of vegetable origin, and it therefore 
follows that no single theory is applicable to all cases.” 
Here, and especially also in the section devoted to 
liquid fuel, the re seems to be too much quoting of 
“authorities,” and too little critical examination of the, 
not infrequently, intrinsically worthless, “ views” which, 
because emanating from the high*placed learned, have 
been allowed to obscure the subject : Mr. Redwood would 
have done good service in pruning away some of these. 
Two of the most valuable of the sections are those dealing 
with the “ Geological and Geographical Distribution of 
Petroleum ” and with the “ Testing of Crude Petroleum 
and Shale Oil Products, Ozokerite and Asphalt,” respec- 
tively. In the first of these Mr. Redwood has introduced 
a series of most carefully drawn maps and sections, many 
of these being original, and at any rate so in the forms 
now presented: the maps, in fact, constitute one of the 
most valuable features of the work, being the kind of 
map brought forward by the man who has visited the 
locality personally. As to the matters dealt with in the 
second of the sections mentioned above, Mr. Redwood is, 
of course, facile princeps, and it cannot fail to be a source 
of justifiable pride to him to see how much he has 
individually contributed to modern methods of testing 
petroleum. Equally (in conjunction with Sir F. Abel) in 
the flash-point apparatus, in the viscosimeter, and lately 
in the flame-cap apparatus, used for the detection of 
dangerous amounts of hydrocarbon gases in tank-ships 
and elsewhere, and in many other ways, the technical 
development of petroleum owes much to his labours ; 
much more than he has allowed himself, with characteristic 
modesty, to indicate here. 
The text is accompanied by over 300 illustrations, all 
most carefully revised and examined ; those dealing with 
drilling implements being particularly serviceable. 
I 
