January 5, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



11 



still lower, it reaches water, which is sim- 

 ilarly forced upward and may flow at the 

 surface. The water is always a brine, be- 

 cause, occupying a closed reservoir, it has 

 no circulation and has been dissolving for 

 ages the soluble minerals contained in the 

 rocks ; and it is thus contrasted with the 

 potable waters of artesian wells, which con- 

 tain comparatively little mineral matter, 

 because they are parts of an underground 

 circulation and their sojourn within the 

 rocks is comparatively brief. An ordinary 

 artesian water does not rise in wells every- 

 where to the same height, the pressure, or 

 head, diminishing as distance increases 

 from the source of supply ; but the stagnant 

 brine underlying a body of petroleum is 

 everywhere subject to the same pressure, 

 and will rise to the same height in any well 

 to which it has access. This principle is 

 intimately related to the pressure under 

 which gas escapes from a well and its 

 knowledge has been found of great practical 

 value to the natural gas industry. 



It follows from the theory, and it is also 

 a matter of observation, that as the gas in 

 a reservoir is drawn ofi" through wells, the 

 underlying oil and brine rise to take its 

 place, and when the local store of gas has 

 been exhausted, the wells either produce 

 oil or are flooded by brine. 



With the demonstration of this theory 

 the earlier idea, that gas was forced out- 

 ward merely by its own elasticity, and that 

 it was generated in subterranean labora- 

 tories from fossil organic matter as rapidly 

 as it escaped, was completely disproved. 

 It became evident that the supply of gas in 

 each reservoir was definitely limited ; that 

 if once exhausted, it could never be re- 

 stored ; that economy was required in the 

 use of natural gas, as with any other re- 

 source ; and that the folly which permitted 

 it to escape freely to the atmosphere was 

 also a crime. That such criminal and dis- 

 astrous folly was actually perpetrated in 



most of the gas fields of northern Ohio and 

 central Indiana was not the fault of Dr. 

 Orton, who early sounded the note of warn- 

 ing, and strenuously combated the infatua- 

 tion of the well owners. 



Of the high esteem in which Orton was 

 held by his colleagues in scientific labor you 

 are already aware. The Geological Society 

 of America, an organization including the 

 leading geologists of the continent, chose 

 him as its president, to serve for the year 

 1897 ; the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, foremost in im- 

 portance among American scientific bodies, 

 called him to the chair of its geologic sec- 

 tion in 1885, and bestowed its highest office 

 in the last year of his life. Even in his 

 own country he was not without honor. 



G. K. GiLBEKT. 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT BEFORE THE 

 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS.* 

 Bearing in mind that we have with us 

 this evening representatives of all branches 

 of natural science, it seems better that I 

 should not attempt to give here a sketch of 

 the progress of botany nor discuss the special 

 problems which botanists are trying to 

 solve. Botany is certainly progressing, but 

 progress is not hastened by stopping too 

 frequently to consider just how much prog- 

 ress has been made. As far as questions 

 of botanical research are concerned the past 

 year has not been marked by any startling 

 discovery, but it has been rather a year of 

 transition, and the work done may be ex- 

 pected to bear mature fruit later. The most 

 striking feature of the past year in our own 

 country has been the publication of a re- 

 markably large number of treatises of an 

 educational character in which the results 

 of recent botanical work have been pre- 

 sented in a fresh and attractive form, but 

 this is evidently not an occasion on which 

 * New Haven, December 28, 1899. 



