It is stated by numerous chemists
that "petroleum almost always contains solid paraffin" and similar
hydrocarbons. Professors Schorlemmer and Thorpe have found heptane in
Pinus, which heptane yielded primary heptyl-alcohol, and
methyl-pentyl-carbinol, exactly as the heptane obtained from petroleum
does (_Annalen de Chemie_, ccxvii., 139, and clxxxviii., 249; and
_Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft_, viii., 1649); and,
further, petroleum contains a large number of hydrocarbons which are
found in coal. Again, Mendelejeff, Beilstein, and others (_Bulletin de
la Societe Chemique de Paris_, No. 1, July 5, 1883), have found
hydrocarbons of the--
C_{n}H_{2n2+}, C_{n}H_{2n-6},
also hydrocarbons of the C_{n}H_{2n} series in the petroleum of Baku,
American petroleum containing similar hydrocarbons.
I think all these facts give very great weight to the theory that
petroleum is of organic origin.
On the other hand, Berthelot, from his synthetic production of
hydrocarbons, believes that the interior of the globe contains
alkaline metals in the _free_ state, which yield acetylides in the
presence of carbonic anhydride, which are decomposed into acetylene by
aqueous vapor.
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