442 



SGIENGJEJ, 



[Vol. YI., No. 146. 



The recently announced failure of the 

 natural gas- wells of Champaign, 111., indicates 

 that the supply in the vicinity of Pittsburgh and 

 elsewhere may not be inexhaustible, and may 

 have aroused anxiety in the minds of those who 

 have invested in this new form of enterprise. 

 There is a great deal to be learned in regard to 

 petroleum and natural gas, but a few points as to 

 their origin and mode of accumulation may be 

 counted settled. They are derived from organic 

 matter distributed through the rocks in which 

 they occur : in other words, they are fossil fuel, 

 as really as coal or lignite. They were accumu- 

 lated in subterranean reservoirs, which are mainly 

 porous sandstones or limestones, covered with im- 

 pervious shales ; and there is no reason to beheve 

 that these accumulations are of recent date. A 

 gas-well or oil-well can no more be ' inexhaustible ' 

 than a coal-mine. While oil is mobile, and can be 

 drawn through the rocks for some distance to the 

 point of delivery, gas is still more mobile, and 

 may travel farther ; but the supply of either or 

 both from a given area is limited and definite. 

 Single gas-wells will fail like single mines, but the 

 field may last for a long time. The first anthra- 

 cite mined in Pennsylvania was opened in a pocket 

 of large extent. The proprietors counted it ' inex- 

 haustible,' and a panic seized them when they 

 found the rock floor beneath it, at no great depth. 

 But a good deal of anthracite has been discovered 

 since. The failure of one set of gas-wells has but 

 little bearing on the life of another set, with other 

 sources of supply, with other sorts of reservoirs, 

 and with other conditions as to depth and geologi- 

 cal structure. 



THE PRESIDENCY OF THE ROYAL 

 SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



The announcement in Nature (Nov. 5) that 

 Professor Huxley has definitely resigned his posi- 

 tion as president of the Royal society of London, 

 and therefore as official leader of British 

 scientific workers, will cause much regret not 

 only in Great Britain and Ireland, but on this 

 side of the Atlantic. This regret is increased by 

 the further statement that the resignation was 

 due to ill health, which made complete freedom 

 from official cares desirable. The president of 

 the Royal society has manifold and anxious 

 duties. It devolves on him to present the claims 

 of British science to the government, and he is 

 officially responsible for the proper expenditure of 



the annual grant made by the nation to the Royal 

 society, for the furtherance of scientific research. 

 He is, moreover, in a certain sense, the official 

 adviser of the government in matters which in- 

 volve scientific questions. Not technically a 

 secretary of state, and fortunately without any 

 political affiliations, upon him devolves, neverthe- 

 less, the duty of advising the cabinet on matters 

 pertaining to science, and as to the selection of 

 regius professors in scientific subjects in English, 

 Scotch, and Irish universities. Of late years such 

 official duties have been made more onerous by 

 the anti- vivisection act, which names the president 

 of the Royal society as one of the few persons who 

 are entitled to certify that they believe the per- 

 formance of experiments on the lower animals is 

 justified by the aim of a particular research, and 

 the character and training of the person who 

 desires to make it. 



In addition to the above official duties and 

 anxieties, the president of the Royal society has 

 exacting social claims. It devolves on him to 

 see that distinguished foreign scientific men who 

 may visit London are suitably entertained, and 

 introduced to those whom they may desire to meet. 

 The position, though, we believe, unpaid, is one 

 of great responsibility, and involves much labor ; 

 and it is an open secret that Professor Huxley 

 assumed it on the understanding that the secre- 

 taries should take the main bulk of the necessary 

 work off his shoulders. His researches, his elo- 

 quence, his great ' common sense,' made him the 

 natural head of British scientific men ; and we 

 tmst that the day is far off when we shall cease 

 to learn from him. We expect, now that he is 

 set free from all routine duty, that we shall find 

 him even more a protagonist than we have in the 

 past. We hope that the newspaper rumor is true, 

 and that he is coming to the United States to study 

 the collections of fossil birds and reptiles gathered 

 by Professor Marsh of Yale college, and give us, 

 as no other is so competent to give, a statement 

 of the bearing of these collections on the general 

 doctrine of evolution. Should the master come 

 to rest and work among us, he will surely meet a 

 hearty greeting. 



Professor Huxley was for several years the bio- 

 logical secretary of the Royal society. According 

 to Nature, his successor is to be Professor Stokes 

 of Cambridge, who has for many years been the 

 mathematico-physical secretary. Who is to be 

 the successor of Professor Stokes as secretary we 

 do not know; but it is interesting to note that 



