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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



meet the demands of science we ought to find somewhere positive 

 proof of its reality as a living force or process in nature. 



2 Origin by secondary decomposition or distillation. That organic 

 matter stored in the rocks can be converted by heat into the 

 petroliferous series is amply demonstrated by the practical oper- 

 ation of the process referred to as the manufacture of illuminat- 

 ing gas and paraffin from coal, bituminous shale and organic 

 waste. In the primary decomposition or decay of organic bodies 

 no extraordinary force is needed to produce the result. The 

 instability of the chemical elements involved is adequate. 

 Through the agency of life these elements were temporarily com- 

 bined into the complex atoms which constitute organic bodies, 

 but as soon as the principle of life is withdrawn the elements 

 tend to resume the simpler combinations out of which organic 

 bodies were constructed. 



In what is called the secondary decomposition of organic bodies 

 the agency of unusual heat is called in. Just what the lowest 

 temperature is at which this process goes forward has not been 

 determined but probably no one would claim that it comes into 

 operation below 400° F. and the usual temperature of the arti- 

 ficial process that we employ is probably twice this or such as is 

 represented by a low red heat. This secondary decomposition 

 is also called dry or destructive distillation. From the organic 

 substances to be acted on, the atmosphere is excluded, and, by 

 the application of heat, as above indicated, the atoms of the body 

 are rearranged in the shape of hydrocarbon compounds, gaseous 

 and liquid, and there is also left over from this process a carbon 

 residue or coke. These two facts, a temperature of not less than 

 400° F. and a carbon residue are indispensable accompaniments 

 or conditions of what we call dry or destructive distillation. 



That this process or rather some modification of it which re- 

 tains all its conditions is effective in nature there seems no 

 reason to doubt. When molten rock is forced upward through 

 a series of strata, some of which, as for example, carbonaceous 

 shales, are loaded with the remains of animal or vegetable organ- 

 isms, the conditions of a gas retort are practically reproduced. 

 The exclusion of the atmosphere, the high temperature, the 

 organic matter, the pressure, are all here, and we can not wonder 

 at the appearance of hydrocarbon compounds essentially like the 



