Editorial Comme.nt. '"j^;) 
in the necessary quantities. This state of affairs was noticed 
first in the latter part of last winter, but the coming of warm 
weather relieved the pressure for domestic purposes and noth- 
ing was heard of the shortage during the summer months. 
But with the first appearance of a change of temperature this 
fall the trouble recommenced in an aggravated form. The last 
movement of the natural gas companies has been to ask the 
big mills to run only at night, when the demand for fuel for 
other purposes would be slight. Many of the establishments 
have decided to return to the use of coal and some have already 
done so."- — Philadelphia Enquirer^ Oct. lo. 1889. 
In the conclusion of this address Mr. Anderson remarks : 
"We are almost forced to the belief that the hydrocarbon 
products must be forming as fast as they are consumed, and 
there is little danger of the demand ever exceeding the sup- 
ply, and that there is every prospect of oil being found in 
almost every portion of the surface of the earth, especially in 
the vicinity of great geological disturbances. Improved meth- 
ods of boring wells will enable greater depths to be reached 
and it should be remembered that apart from the cost of sink- 
ing a deep well there is no extra expense in working at great 
depths, because the oil generally rises to the surface or near 
it. The extraordinary pressures, amounting to 300 pounds on 
the square inch, which have been measured in some wells, 
seem to me to yield conclusive evidence of the impermeability 
of the strata from which the oil has been forced up and tends 
to confirm the view that it must have been formed in regions 
far below any which could have contained organic remains." 
After what we have already said it is needless to point out 
the fallacy of Mr. Anderson's reasoning and the baseless nature 
of the rose-colored vision witli which he amused his audience 
''We find that the saui» complaint comes from Wheeling, W. Va. 
In the issue of the Scientific American for October 5, which has just 
come to hand, wo read, "The natural <,'a3 supply is becoming scarcer 
every ilay and there is especial com])laint anions the manufacturers 
who had hoped that <lurini? the warm weather they would have all tlie 
gas that they needed. For several weeks past the Riverside Tube 
Works and Plate Mill have been very greatly troubled by lack of gas 
and at times have been compelled to stop till the supply became bet- 
ter. The companv is getting things into shai)e as rapidly as ])Ossible 
to go back to the lise of coal in the tube works. The Bellaire mill has 
gone back to the use of coal and the Labelle is understood to contem- 
plate a return to coal in all departments. Several other mills and fai- 
tories are in the same position." — Register. 
