Connecticut western news., 1877-07-20
SCIENTIFIC.

NeU Theory Of tue Origin Of Petroleum. The origin of the immense quanti- ties of hydrocarbon oils which are found saturatlng strata of sandstOnes, or pent up in cavities of the older rocks, or escaping to the surface and collect ing upon pools of water. has been the subject of frequent discussion. The theory generally accepted, and en- dorsed by such names as Hunt. New berry. and Silliman. is that it is of or ganic origin, either vegetable or mineral. It has even been suggested that the bad smelling petroleum of Canada owes it's origin to decayed fish. According to T. Sterry Hunt (American Journal of Science. March, 1S63), "the pyrOschists of Bosanquet belong to the Devonian series, and contain the re- mains of land plants, so that 8 partially decayed vegetation may be supposed to have been the source of the organic matter which is intimately mingled with the earthly base of the rocks; N but in the pyrOschists of thes Utica for nation, the chief organic remains to be detected are graptolites. with few brachioDods and crustaceans."
 In view of these facts we are not a little surprised ..at the new and yet plausible theory advanced by the dis tinguished Russian chemist. Mendele-
 
 Society of St. Petersburg. The appear ance of oil on the surface of the earth proves that it has 8 tendency to rise through the various strata of the earth, and this is no doubt due to it's being lighter than water, which, being every where present, forces it upward. For this reason we are compelled to sup pose that it was formed lower down in the earth than the. places where it is now found. Another reason for this belief is that the sand-stones in which much of this mineral oil is found, con- tain no charred organized remains, which must be present where the oil was produced, if 1t be of organic origin. Since petroleum is found in the Cauca- sus in tertiary, and in Pennsylvania in Devonian and Silurian, it's origin must have been in the older rocks at still greater depth. But in those ancient periods, like the Silurian, not many organized beings could have existed. Hence Mendeljeff thinks that it is very improbable that petroleum is the pro- duct of any decOmpOsed Organi- matter.
 Mendelejeff starts with Laplace's theory of the formation of the earth, applies Dalton's law to the original gaseous condition of the constituents of the earth, and calculates the prob able arrangement of the metals in the earth from the density of the globe and the vapOr density of the clements. Starting with the assumption, which is not imprO bable, that iron is the most abundant of metals, since it is present in large quantities in the sun and in meteorities, and admitting the exis- tence of carbon compounds of this metal, not only will it be easy to ex- plain the formahon of petroleum, but one can understand all the peculiari- ties of it's occurrence in those places where the earth's strata has been broken by the elevation of mountain chains. Breaks made in this way per- mitted the water to permeate to the carbOnaceous metals; and at the high temperature, and under heavy pres sure, it acted upon them, forming OK i6es of the metals and saturated hydro cartoons. The latter rose as vapOrs to the higher strata, where they were con- densed, saturating the porous sand stones, which are capable of absorbing many oily products.
 Many other phenomena of nature are explained by this theory of the formation of petroleum, such as pre- dominance on the earth's surface of elements with small atomic weights, the occurrence of oil in straight lines or arcs of huge circles, it's dependence upon volcanic action, which has been noticed by Abich and others, the mag netism of the earth, and many other natural phenomena.