August 23, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



237 



sacrifices already made; in any case the 

 literature for the period from 1896 to 1900 

 will have been well indexed and an impor- 

 tant experiment in view of the Eoyal So- 

 ciety's undertaking will have been tried. 



I should like finally to remind authors 

 and publishers that they can greatly aid in 

 this work by preparing short resumes of 

 their publications as recommended in these 

 columns by Professor Bowditch. 



Heebeet Haviland Field. 



Geeat Neck, L. I., New Yoek.* 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Le petrole, I'asphalte et le bitume, an pointe 

 de vue geologique. Par A. Jaccaed, pro- 

 fessor de geologie a 1 'academic de ISTeu- 

 chatel. Anceinne librarie Germer Bail- 

 liere et cie. Paris. 1895. 

 This work forms one of the volumes of 

 the Bibliotheque Scientifique Internationale 

 and has been published since the author's 

 death, on the 5th of last January. 



The task of reviewing the work of one no 

 longer living imposes upon the reviewer 

 great care that no injustice shall be done 

 the author, either as regards his intention 

 or accomplishment. A very careful perusal 

 of the work has shown that the author was 

 a very close observer of nature, and a man 

 of very positive convictions within the 

 range of his own observations, yet in his 

 final conclusions not too confident of his 

 own infallibility, although at times, along 

 the line of argument that he maintains 

 throughout the work, his language very 

 closely approaches upon dogmatism. He 

 devoted his life to the study of the geology 

 of the Jura, and that portion of France and 

 Switzerland which includes the celebrated 

 deposits of bituminous limestone and sand- 

 stone lying in the upper valley of the 

 Rhone, from Neuchatel to Pyrimont and be- 

 yond. In this work he has included, not 



* Address after September 3d, care of Brown, Ship- 

 ley & Co., London, E. C. 



only the results of his own observations, but 

 those of many other writers from the earliest 

 mention made in scientific literature to the 

 present time. I do not question that in re- 

 spect to this particular department of the 

 general literature of bituminous substances, 

 or, more properly speaking, of bitumen, that 

 this work is without a rival the most com- 

 plete that has been devoted to the scientific 

 discussion of this subject. 



I think it is to be regretted that the au- 

 thor attempted a more ambitious work, and 

 sought to reach general conclusions that, 

 beyond the horizon of his own observations, 

 were based upon the work of others made 

 at various dates and under various condi- 

 tions, which M. Jaccard appears to have 

 accepted without much discrimination. He 

 further allowed himself to be confined ex- 

 clusively to works written in the French 

 language which, embracing, as thej^ do, 

 many of the most valuable original mem- 

 oirs extant, would at the same time ex- 

 clude all access to the original works of 

 American, English and German writers on 

 the subject. As an illustration he quotes at 

 this date (1895) the conclusions reached 

 by M. Daubre in his ' Rapport du jury de 

 I'exposition internationale de Paris, 1867,' 

 in relation to the petroleiims of North 

 America. This paucity of information writ- 

 ten in the French language, and injudicious 

 use of French authors who have discussed 

 the subject second hand, renders the work 

 of very little value so far as it relates to 

 American bitum^. 



Again, he devotes a considerable portion 

 of the work to the discussion of the ' Origin 

 of Bitumen,' a subject that cannot be dis- 

 cussed from the ' point of view ' of geology 

 alone, as it involves a knowledge of both 

 the chemistry and technology of bitumi- 

 nous substances. The apparent lack of 

 knowledge of the details of the chemis- 

 try and technology of bitumens has led to 

 many misstatements and invalid conclu- 



