HAWORTH. | Origin of Oil and Gas. 187 
gradually declined, and finally, after the well became entirely 
exhausted, the pipe-line was taken up, the casing drawn, and 
the well destroyed. On the supposition of the slow travel of 
water being the real reason for the gradual decline of gas-wells 
it is difficult to understand such a phenomenon as here men- 
tioned. 
Origin of Oil and Gas. 
During recent times much has been written regarding the 
origin of oil and gas, personal debates of greater or less mag- 
nitude have been engaged in, various articles in magazines 
and state reports have been published on the subject, and yet 
it would seem that we are little, if any, closer a final solution 
of the question than we were forty years ago. 
In a general way the views held by scientists may be 
grouped into two classes, the so-called chemical theory and the 
organic theory, each of which will be outlined here and a few 
arguments in favor of each presented, in order that the reader 
may have the subject properly before him. So long as there 
is a difference of opinion on the subject, just that long care 
should be taken not to become dogmatic. The writer has only 
one object in this discussion, and that is to place before his 
readers in a measure a correct outline of the present condi- 
tion of thought on this great and important question. It mat- 
ters not what his views are, per se, nor the views of any other 
one or half dozen individuals, only so far as these individual 
views may be based upon actual observations. It should be 
remembered that here is a great question in a measure yet 
unanswered, although quite probably not unanswerable. Scien- 
tists generally believe that could we determine the origin of 
oil and gas it might be turned to great practical value in lo- 
cating pools of these valuable hydrocarbons. 
CHEMICAL THEORY. 
In a general way the chemical theory may be stated to be 
a belief that in some manner water acting upon hot metals is 
decomposed, the oxygen being absorbed by the metals and the 
hydrogen thus set free uniting with carbon and forming a 
large number of hydrocarbons, namely, petroleum and natural 
gas. There seems to be a considerable variety of details re- 
garding such beliefs, and yet these variations are of minor 
importance. 
In 1866 the sbietsoevcanh tie French ehemist Bertholet ad- 
