390 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 168. 



neither are the scarcely less important Tertiary 

 deposits of California, the West Indies and 

 South America. Again he says, " In certain de- 

 posits in America, above all, the pressure of the 

 gas upon the oil is feeble ; in Russia, on the con- 

 trary, it is very strong ;" further, ' 'It results that 

 in America the greater part of the wells are 

 exploited with pumps, whilst in Russia they 

 spout of themselves." Proceeding, he illustrates 

 the occurrence of petroleum in the crust of the 

 earth with a diagram, which shows a subter- 

 ranean chamber containing salt water, petro- 

 leum and gas in position, one below the other. 

 . Now, these statements as to the gas pressure 

 and pumping wells in the United States are 

 absolutely false, and, while the theory that 

 large cavities in the crust of the earth were 

 filled with gas, oil and water, ranged according 

 to their specific gravities, was broached by Pro- 

 fessor E. B. Andrews more than thirty years 

 since, it never found general acceptance, even 

 at that early date, and has been wholly dis- 

 proved years ago. 



Concerning the origin of petroleum, he refers 

 to Hunt's papers, printed nearly forty years 

 ago, and has not a word to say concerning 

 those of Lesley, Orton, Ashburner, Carll, Sad- 

 tier, etc. 



We look in vain for any adequate statements 

 concerning the nitrogen content of bitumen, 

 particularly petroleum. But little more satis- 

 faction can be found in the meagre notices of 

 the work of Mabery and Smith upon the sul- 

 phur compounds of petroleum. And this is the 

 more noticeable, inasmuch, as by referring to 

 these papers at all, the author has shown him- 

 self not wholly unacquainted with the subject. 



Perhaps one of the most remarkable examples 

 of inadequacy, when due regard is had to the 

 abundance of material from which to draw, is 

 found in the figures and descriptions illustrat- 

 ing the methods and apparatus employed in drill- 

 ing wells. As reference is made to Boverton 

 Redwood— misspelled Bowerton — it might be in- 

 ferred that M. Miron was acquainted with the 

 classical work of that author. If he is, we do 

 not understand why such puerile efforts were 

 made, both in matter and quality of designs, to 

 illustrate drilling tools. 



But little more satisfaction can be gained 



from a perusal of the pages devoted to the pro- 

 cesses employed in refining petroleum. While 

 the descriptions are correct as far as they go, 

 the illustrations are meagre and wholly unsat- 

 isfactory. 



At page 127 we reach the consideration of 

 schist oils, an industry which ought to be the 

 pride of every Frenchman. The reader is in- 

 formed that the origin of this industry dates 

 from 1830, and was founded upon the efforts of 

 the celebrated chemist Laurent, who discovered 

 that, in distilling the schists called bituminous 

 in closed vessels, a liquid was obtained suscep- 

 tible of giving, after appropriate treatment, 

 refined products like gasoline and the lamp 

 oil of petroleum, as also heavy lubricating oils 

 and parafiine. This statement, while partly 

 true, is most astonishing, as the records of the 

 French Patent Ofiice show that long previous 

 to the publication of Laurent's paper in 1833 

 — not 1830 — several French inventors had 

 been at work on both these products and pro- 

 cesses, and that while Laurent earned well- 

 merited distinction in perfecting them the real 

 merit of their invention belongs to several 

 others, but especially to Selligue, who obtained 

 his first patent in 1834, but who, according to 

 his own statements, had been already many 

 years at work on the development of his 

 methods. 



A lack of time and space prevents a further 

 pursuit of details. To say that the book has no 

 value would be saying too much ; to say that 

 the author had used a great opportunity to very 

 little purpose would not be far from the truth. 

 Why an author in any language should refer to 

 Boverton Redwood's work on Petroleum, which 

 is filled with reference to original articles in all 

 languages, and leave out of consideration the 

 papers of Lesley, Orton, Ashburner, Carll, 

 Stevenson, Sadtler, etc., is difiicult of explana- 

 tion. 



We would suggest that some French author 

 who reads English should read the several 

 hundred original papers extant on American 

 petroleum, and give to French scientific litera- 

 ture a compendium of information on that in- 

 teresting subject that would be, at the same 

 time, full, reliable and up-to-date. 



S. F. Peckham, 



