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native justice & magnanimity, [as well as to] and we have conjured them by the tyes of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which [were likely to] would inevitably interrupt our connection & correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice, and of consanguinity; [and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election reestablished them in power. At this very time too, they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but [Scotch and] foreign mercenaries to invade and destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection; and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free & a great people together; but a communication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness and to glory is open to us too; we will climb it apart from them and] we must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our [eternal] separation [!] and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We therefore the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions do, in the name, & by authority of the good people of these [states, reject and renounce all allegiance and subjection to the kings of Great Britain, and all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve all political connection which may heretofore have subsisted between us and the parliament or people of Great Britain, and finally we do assert these] Colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are and of Right ought to be free and independant states; that they are Absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; & that as free & independant states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, & to do all other acts and things which independant states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

THE GENESIS OF BITUMENS, AS RELATED TO CHEMI

CAL GEOLOGY.

BY S. F. PECKHAM.

(Read April 1, 1898.)

1. On the 5th of February, 1897, a symposium was held at the rooms of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, upon "The Origin and Nature of Petroleum." It was conducted by Profs. S. P. Sadtler and Charles F. Mabery, Dr. D. T. Day, of Washington, D. C., Francis C. Phillips and the writer. While listening to the papers then read, I was impressed with the fact that the discussion proceeded almost wholly without regard to any consideration of the different conditions that probably obtained in that primitive world in which the oldest petroleums found their origin. Prof. Mabery discussed, from the standpoint of pure chemistry, the composition of the petroleums of the Trenton limestone; I, myself, those of the Miocene Tertiary of California; Dr. Sadtler, the extremely interesting experiments that he had made upon the destructive distillation of the glycerides of linseed oil; while Dr. Day discoursed upon the somewhat remote and problematic resultant of certain chemical reactions upon bitumen; and Mr. Phillips presented some exceedingly interesting theoretical considerations concerning "The Genesis of Petroleum and Natural Gas" and "The Occurrence of Petroleum in the Cavities of Fossils." Later reflection has brought very forcibly to my mind considerations that I am led to present as a possible means of reconciling many of the differences that appear in the late discussion of these questions.1

2. In view of the general acceptance of the nebular hypothesis, it is unnecessary to establish the fundamental proposition that bitumens, as minerals, are properly considered in their relation to all the other mineral species that have been identified and described as together constituting the earth's crust. The clear distinction of these relations has followed upon many years of research along several lines. It began more than a century ago with the famous discussion waged between the Plutonists and Neptunists, as to whether fire or water had been most active in producing the phe1 PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC., xxxvi, No. 154.

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