PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 411 



In addition to these facts it has been definitely established 

 within the last 30 years that the genuine and unmistakable mem- 

 bers of the petroleum group, including illuminating oil, lubricat- 

 ing oil, benzin and paraffin, can be obtained from the distilla- 

 tion of fish oil. The demonstration was first made by two Ameri- 

 can chemists, Messrs Warren and Storer, in 1867-68. 20 years 

 afterward, Dr Carl Engler, of Carlsruhe, Germany, duplicated 

 and extended their experiments. Based on these striking re- 

 sults, several chemists have lately advanced the claim that petro- 

 leum is altogether restricted to this particular origin, namely, 

 to the fatty oils of fishes. 



That this claim is altogether untenable may be seen, among 

 other considerations, in the fact that the Trenton limestone oil 

 field of Ohio and Indiana, at present the most important in the 

 United States, antedates by vast periods of time the introduction 

 of fishes into the geologic scale of the country at large. 



Further, during the last year (1897) Dr S. P. Sadtler of Phila- 

 delphia,' read a paper before the American philosophical society 

 in which he announced the very interesting and important result 

 of having obtained hydrocarbon oils of the true petroleum type 

 by the distillation of the glycerids of oils derived from vege- 

 table seeds, thus duplicating Dr Engler's results and confirming 

 the charge of overhaste on the part of those who ascribe the 

 origin of petroleum generally to products of the vertebrate sub- 

 kingdom. 



To the general statement, therefore, that the bituminous series, 

 petroleum, gas, asphalt, etc. are all derived from organic sources, 

 it can be safely said that at the present time all geologists sub- 

 scribe. Prof. C. F. Zincken of Leipzig has recently said " Not 

 a doubt any longer prevails as to the derivation of petroleum 

 from organic matter." It appears also that chemists are gener- 

 ally coming to the same conclusion despite the brilliant but fanci- 

 ful and unverifiable theories of Berthelot and MendeljerT. It is 

 entirely unnecessary to descend to the region of igneous fluidity 

 to find the genesis of these invaluable substances because there 

 is always an organic source nearer at hand. The law of " par- 

 simony of force " is applicable to the case. 



But though geologists are agreed as to the organic source of 

 the petroleum series, when we inquire as to the probable mode 



