ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 91 
support seems to have come to such a view from certain lines of re- 
ported facts. The testimony of G. P. Wall in 1860 to the effect that 
the production of petroleum could be seen going forward on the island 
of Trinidad, manifestly connected with the decomposition of vegetable 
tissue, has not been corroborated by later observers. Wall’s testimony 
was in itself impressive and it was used effectively by Dr T.S. Hunt. If 
it had been or could be thoroughly substantiated, it would go far toward 
settling the question at issue. 
Considerable weight has also been attached to the recent observations 
reported by Dr Oscar Fraas, of Stuttgart, on the occurrence of petroleum 
in certain coral reefs of the Red sea. Dr Fraas confidently refers the 
petroleum to the decomposition of the organic matter of the reef. ‘This 
claim also, if fully sustained, would solve the problem as to the mode of 
origin of petroleum; but unfortunately the interpretation of the facts is 
not beyond question. Other explanations of the presence of the observed 
petroleum can be offered, which have at least a show of probability. I, 
however, further examination should confirm the claim of Fraas that 
petroleum is now forming in these reefs at the normal temperature of 
the sea and out of the organic remains of dead corals, the long contro- 
versy would be closed. 
The occurrence of petroleum or its derivatives in fossil corals and 
shells has long been noted. The facts have been used by some as de- 
‘eisive proofs of the conversion into oil of the organic matter represented 
by the fossils; but to this it is objected that the petroleum found greatly 
exceeds in amount what the organic matter in question could supply. 
The objection seems to me well taken. 
Its occurrence in peat bogs, as recorded by Binney, is not proof con- 
_ elusive that it originated there. 
Any theory of petroleum production to be acceptable to geologists 
must provide for the use of the organic substances elaborated by the 
lower divisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms as well as by the 
higher. To limit the process to the fatty acids derived from the decom- 
position of vertebrates or to the oils contained in the seeds of the highest 
groups of plants would be ludicrously inadequate. As in the doctrines 
of orthodoxy, the geological test must be, Quod semper, ubicunque, ab 
omnibus. The great stocks of petroleum on which the world depends 
are practically independent of both these higher sources. As we have 
seen, some of the oil fields antedate these divisions, not by millenniums 
alone, but by eons. 
We must not forget that the chemical actions and reactions which we set 
in motion laboriously and with great expenditure of force in our labora- 
tories, in the great laboratory of nature appear to be of the simplest and 
