PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 407 



reactions. Two among these theories have obtained a wide 

 circulation by reason of the high rank of their authors, but they 

 can not be said to have gained an equally wide acceptance. 



In 18()G Berthelot, professor of chemistry in the college of 

 France, and distinguished by remarkable and epoch-making dis- 

 coveries in organic chemistry, particularly as to the composition 

 of alcohols and sugars and by the discovery of acetylene, ad- 

 vanced the theory that the interior of the earth contains free 

 alkali metals (sodium and potassium) and that these elements, 

 when acted on by carbonic acid or carbonates at a high tempera- * 

 lure would form carbids of these metals, which, by the action of 

 water, would form hydrocarbons analagous to those found in 

 petroleum. In short, he proposed the theory that both liquids 

 and gaseous hydrocarbons of the bituminous series would result 

 if meteoric water carrying carbonic acid or earthy carbonates in 

 solution should reach by infiltration the metallic masses above 

 named at a white heat and under high pressure. The chemical 

 reactions invoked under the conditions named are undoubtedly 

 sound, and the bituminous series would unquestionably result 

 if these conditions should be met. The recent production of 

 calcium carbid by the electric furnace on a commercial scale 

 and its common use in the production of acetylene gas as an 

 illuminant have made the process familiar and have given to it 

 an air of reality that it never before possessed. 



The theory of Mendeljeff, the eminent Russian chemist, is 

 founded on altogether similar lines, but is relieved from some 

 of the glaring improbabilities of Berthelofs hypothesis. It was 

 first announced in 1877 and has been revamped and restated by 

 the author during the present decade. Mendeljeff is the author 

 of one of the most remarkable generalizations ever made in the 

 science of chemistry. It is known as the periodic law, and has 

 given to the science the ability of predicting future discoveries, 

 similar to that so long, possessed by astronomy, and which is 

 recognized by all as the crowning proof that a science has 

 reached its perfect, though not necessarily, its completed stage. 

 There is no higher name in chemistry today than that of 

 Mendeljeff. 



His theory in regard to petroleum formation is briefly this. 

 He supposes the interior of the earth to contain large masses of 



