March 20, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



239 



THE TENTH VOLUME OF THE CENSUS 

 REPORT. 



The quarto volumes comprising the final re- 

 port of the tenth census are not only more nu- 

 merous and larger, and contain more detailed 

 and perfect statistical exhibits of the population 

 and products of the United States, than those 

 of the ninth census, but they are also less 

 purely statistical ; the statistics being, in most 

 cases, accompanied by elaborate discussions, 

 which add much to the interest and usefulness 

 of the figures. This statement is applicable 

 to the whole of the tenth volume, but espe- 

 cially to the report on petroleum, by Professor 

 Peckham. The statistics of the production, 

 manufacture, and uses of petroleum, although 

 set forth with all the fulness and detail desira- 

 ble, are by no means the most prominent fea- 

 ture of this monograph of three hundred solid 

 pages. The literature of petroleum, prior to 

 1860, was very scanty; but it has kept pace 

 with the phenomenally rapid growth of this 

 industry, being at the present time ver}' volu- 

 minous and very fragmentary. Hence it was 

 considered advisable to make this report an 

 authority upon the subject by embodying the 

 results of a careful examination of the entire 

 literature of petroleum, supplemented by the 

 results of the author's own researches before 

 and during the census year. Fortunately, the 

 work was placed in charge of a man well 

 equipped by previous study and investigation ; 

 and the outcome is a monograph which the 

 future student of petroleum will not ignore. 

 And a feature not to be overlooked in this 

 connection is the bibliograptry of petroleum, 

 including more than eight hundred titles chron- 

 ologically arranged, the earliest elating back to 

 450 B.C. 



Although this work is, in its plan, a compre- 

 hensive treatise on the native bitumens of the 

 globe, yet the author has not forgotten that it 

 is in realit} T a part of the census report ; and 

 for this reason, and because of their prepon- 

 derating importance, it is devoted mainly to the 

 liquid bitumens of the eastern United States. 

 It is conveniently divided into three parts, — 

 the natural history, technology, and uses of 

 petroleum. Part i. is the most important in 

 point of size and general interest, including 

 every thing relating to the mode of occurrence, 

 distribution, origin, and production of petro- 

 leum. The geographical distribution of bitu- 



Production, technology, and uses of petroleum and its prod- 

 ucts, by S. F. Peckham. The manufacture of coke, by Joseph 

 D. Weeks. Building-stones of the United States, and statistics 

 of the quarry industry for 7880. Census report, vol. x. Wash- 

 ington, Government, i 884. 2G+806 p., 119 pi. 4°. 



mens is illustrated by a series of maps, which 

 show, among other important facts, that east 

 of the Mississippi River the localities afford- 

 ing petroleum — in Canada, Michigan, Indiana, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and New York — describe an ellipse 

 upon the border of the Cincinnati anticlinal. 

 This correlation of the distribution with the 

 geological structure of the region introduces 

 the very important chapter on the mode of oc- 

 currence of bitumens. It is shown here that 

 the statement that bitumens are found in all 

 formations, from the Cambrian to the tertiary, is 

 misleading ; since the really productive deposits 

 occur chiefly at two horizons, — the tertiary in 

 Europe, Asia, West Indies, South America, 

 and California ; and the Silurian and Devonian 

 in eastern North America. For obvious rea- 

 sons, the interest centres in the precise geologi- 

 cal position of the petroleum in the last-named 

 region ; and Professor Peckham, after quoting 

 the views of Hunt, Carll, and Andrews, con- 

 cludes with the statement that each of these 

 gentlemen is right in his own district ; that the 

 petroleum of Canada and West Virginia cer- 

 tainly does, and that of Pennsylvania does 

 not, occur along anticlinal axes. 



The scientific student of petroleum will turn 

 eagerly to the chapter on the origin of bitumens, 

 to find each theory explained by copious quo- 

 tations, and the author's own conclusion, that 

 while the asphalts and oils of California are 

 of animal origin, and indigenous in the strata 

 from which they are obtained, the petroleum 

 of Pennsylvania and West Virginia is clearly 

 of vegetable origin, and a distillate from for- 

 mations below those in which it is found. 



The practical side of the subject next claims 

 attention in the sections on the development 

 of oil territory ; the drilling, pumping, blast- 

 ing, flooding, and general management of 

 wells ; and the transportation and commerce of 

 the crude petroleum, with the accompai^ing 

 statistics. The unpoetical aspect of this in- 

 dustry is very vividly portrayed in the frontis- 

 piece and in the following paragraph : — 



"The development of the oil territory proceeds 

 without regard to any other interest. The derrick 

 comes like an army of occupation. In the towns a 

 dooryard or a garden alike surrenders its claims. 

 The farms, fields, orchards, or gardens alike are lost 

 to agriculture, and given to oil; and on the forest- 

 covered hills the most beautiful and valuable timber 

 is ruthlessly cut, and left to rot in huge heaps, wher- 

 ever a road or a derrick demands room. Pipe-lines 

 are run over the hills and through the valleys, 

 through dooryards, along streets, across streets and 

 railroads; and here and there the vast storage-tanks 

 stand, a perpetual menace to every thing near them 

 that will burn. Nothing that I ever beheld reminded 



