April;  Ss™"}  The  Origin  oj  Petroleum. 
187 
prove  its  true  habitat,  an  opinion  contrary  to  the  generally  prevailing 
one,  which  is  that  it  is  the  Malay  Peninsula.  At  Kew  nothing  is 
known  of  the  existence  of  any  form  of  Pogostemon  Patchouli  in  the 
Khasia  or  Assam  region,  but  some  varieties  of  the  plant  in  the  wild 
state  are  found  in  British  India,  from  Bombay  southwards,  and  a 
plant  with  a  patchouli  odor,  believed  to  be  a  variety  of  Plectranthus^ 
is  thought  to  be  indigenous  to  Assam.  The  shipments  of  very  stalky 
and  feebly  aromatic  root  which  reach  us  occasionally  from  Bombay 
are  perhaps  derived  from  the  former  species.  In  connection  with  this 
it  may  be  stated  that  the  idea  of  the  patchouli  herb  being  a  native  of 
China  probably  originates  from  the  fact  that  the  block  ink  imported 
from  that  country  possesses  a  distinct  odor  of  patchouli.  The  intro- 
duction  of  the  perfume  to  the  European  market  is  said  to  be  due  to 
the  Lyons  shawl  manufacturers  who,  finding  that  the  Indian  shawls 
were  always  strongly  scented  with  patchouli,  imported  the  oil  from 
the  East  to  scent  goods  of  their  own  manufacture. —  Chemist  and 
Druggist,  March  17th,  1888,^.  360. 
THE  OEIGIN  OF  PETROLEUM.* 
By  Albert  H.  Samuel,  F.C.S. 
I  think  it  will  be  generally  conceded  that  during  the  last  half  cen- 
tury the  more  civilized  nations  of  the  world  have  made  advances  in 
scientific  discovery  out  of  all  proportion  to  those  made  in  any  previous 
period  of  a  like  duration,  and  among  these  not  the  least  important 
have  been  those  in  that  branch  of  science  which  treats  of  the  natural 
history  of  the  earth,  the  investigation  of  its  structure,  and  the  charac- 
ter and  the  causes  of  the  changes  which  since  its  first  development 
have  been  continually  taking  place  upon  its  surface. 
A  study  of  the  earth's  history,  such  as  the  science  of  geology  affords 
us,  has  the  advantage  over  history  in  the  general  acceptation  of  that 
term,  or  a  record  of  the  events  of  mankind,  inasmuch  as  the  latter,, 
however  impartially  it  may  be  recorded,  must  be  necessarily  frequently 
fallible  from  want  of  strictly  accurate  information  of  the  various  scenes, 
periods  and  actions  it  may  record,  to  say  nothing  of  the  bias  of  some 
of  the  writers. 
*  Address  delivered  before  the  Liverpool  Chemists'  Association,  January  26^ 
1888 ;  reprinted  from  Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Feb.  11,  pp.  674-677. 
