GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF PETROLEUM 
59 
temperature, \\niile it is true that there is more or less of a 
‘ ^patchwork’ ^ arrangement of temperatures in the ocean, cold 
waters often immediately adjacent to warm waters, it may be 
said in general that the temperature increases toward the equator. 
Likewise, with conspicuous exceptions, the abundance and 
variety of life increases rapidly toward the equator. So far as 
the abundance of life alone is concerned, it seems likely that there 
has been some limit, poleward from which the formation of petro- 
leum has been of little importance. 
Other factors concerned in the origin of petroleum from organ- 
isms have been suggested, factors of equal or greater importance 
than the relative amount of organic matter available. Two of 
the most conspicuous of these is the rate of decay of organic 
matter and the rate of sedimentation. A brief consideration of 
some of the principles involved will make the importance of 
these factors more evident. 
Many sorts of organisms have been subjected to destructive 
distillation in an attempt to produce petroleum. Of these sub- 
stances a large number, both plant and animal and various combi- 
nations, have produced oils very similar to natural petroleum. 
It has been noted in all cases, however, that it is the fatty portion 
of the organism that produces the desired results. In every case 
w^here the entire organism is utilized the simulation of petroleum 
is much less marked, especially in the presence of large pro- 
portions of nitrogenous bases in the synthetic product. Ap- 
parently in nature there has been a very efficient denitrifying 
agent cooperating in the formation of petroleum. 
As such a denitrifying agent, nothing more adequate, more 
logical is suggested than denitrifying bacteria. While the abun- 
dance, the importance, and the exact role of these organisms is 
not generally understood, the principles involved are evident. 
Apparently their first activity in the destruction of organic 
matter is the consumption of the nitrogenous portions; the fatty 
parts are for a time untouched. In the decay of a given amount 
of organic detritus, up to a certain time, there is an actual 
increase in the proportion of fatty material to the whole. 
