But it has been already proved that acetylene may be
polymerized, so as to produce aromatic carbides, or the derivatives of
marsh gas, by the absorption of hydrogen. Berthelot's view, therefore,
is too imaginative; for the presence of _free_ alkaline metals in the
earth's interior is an unproved and very improbable hypothesis.
Byasson states that petroleum is formed by the action of water,
carbonic anhydride, and sulphureted hydrogen upon incandescent iron.
Mendelejeff thinks it is formed by the action of aqueous vapor upon
carbides of iron; and in his article, "Petroleum, the Light of the
Poor" (in this month's--February--number of _Good Words_), Sir Lyon
Playfair, K.C.B., F.R.S., etc., holds opinions similar to those of
Mendelejeff.
Taking in consideration the facts that solid paraffin is found in
petroleum and is also found in coal, and from my own work that phenol
exists in _Pinus sylvestris_, and has been found by others in coal
which is produced from the decomposition of a flora containing
numerous gigantic coniferae allied to Pinus, and that petroleum
contains phenol, and each (i.
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