Ill 
In short, the term force, used in an abstract sense, and 
without defining the kind of force intended, is worse than 
idle or unmeaning, because when so used by eminent phy- 
sicists, it cannot fail to puzzle and mislead the younger 
students in the sciences. The author quoted frankly states 
that the dogmas he expounds — “ seem not quite so clear to 
the unscientific mind.” 
Considering that this city is so widely distinguished, for 
its practical application of the mechanical and chemical 
sciences, it would reflect much discredit on the community, 
for us to be unable to comprehend the simple elements of 
the natural forces, so largely guided by our hands. Hence, 
a few words seem called for, to distinguish the several 
forces, acting conjointly, or separately ; and to protest 
against their being confounded together, as an abstract 
entity to be conservated. 
There seems no ground for asserting any new discoveries 
relating to the natural forces; yet a boundless field lies 
before us, for new applications of those forces, to the ever 
expanding and varying uses of man. 
In addition to the before-mentioned fallacies, of* including 
all physical forces under one head, and treating them as an 
abstract entity, it is assumed by the new philosophy, that 
vast mechanical forces, are continually exerted by special 
natural agencies, which hitherto have not been known to 
exert, or to possess this kind of force in any degree. To 
sustain this assumption, its authors have not been able to 
adduce any facts, or even analogies, in known phenomena, to 
prove or render probable the exertion of such forces, as, for 
instance, the alleged mechanical forces of the solar rays, when 
they are intercepted by aqueous vapour in the air, and the 
like forces assumed to be in continuous action, by and 
among the agitated atoms and molecules, or the ultimate 
particles of tangible bodies, and thus by their internal 
motions, tending to change, or to restore their sizes and 
