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 coniferæ allied to Pinus, and that petroleum
contains phenol, and each (i.e., petroleum and coal) contains a number
of hydrocarbons common to both, I am inclined to think that the
balance of evidence is in favor of the hypothesis that petroleum has
been produced in nature from a vegetable source in the interior of the
globe. Of course, there can be no practical or direct evidence as to
the origin of petroleum; therefore "theories are the only lights with
which we can penetrate the obscurity of the unknown, and they are to
be valued just as far as they illuminate our path."

In conclusion, I think that there is a connecting link between the old
pine and fir forest of bygone ages and the origin of petroleum in
nature.--_Chemical News._

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THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF PARIS.