77 
the age of the lower level gravels of the valley of the Somme 
in France, where the flint implements have been found. 
Doubts have been raised as to these flints having been 
fashioned by human hands, but as to the origin of the wooden 
fabric, if, as stated, it was covered by 12 feet of undisturbed 
sand and gravel, no such doubts can rationally be raised. 
A Paper was read, entitled, “ Notes on the Action of Pleat 
and Force upon Matter,” by J. C. Dyer, V.P. 
Confining his observations to the “ action of mechanical 
forces,” — apart from those depending on the electrical, 
magnetical, and vital forces — he held the former to depend 
on the inherent properties of matter, as gravity, inertia, and 
elasticity, each coextensive with the material universe. 
That force cannot in any case be treated as an abstraction 
or as apart from the matter in which it resides, though 
several authors have had recourse to such an abstraction, to 
account for phenomena attending the operation of force. 
Mechanical action, depending on the elastic force generated 
by the agency of carbon and icater, being of so great 
importance, it is desirable to obtain some settled knowledge 
as to how this arises. We all know that by combustion of 
the former the latter is converted into steam. That which 
passes from the burning coals through the boiler plates and 
into the water to form the elastic vapour, is called heat ; but 
whether it be a union of heat with the water, or only a 
transmitted mechanical action on the water, causing its 
atoms to separate and assume the elastic state, remains a 
question for solution; and of late several able writers have 
offered explanations of this phenomenon founded on the sup- 
posed nonentity of heat and the agency of mechanical force 
to form steam, and thus rejecting the latent heat theory which 
before seemed to account for the heat absorbed to form steam. 
So far as the latent heat theory serves to explain phenomena, 
the mechanical creation of heat is uncalled for, since it is 
B 
