Abstract
THE more detailed paper by M. Marcellin Boule on the subject of the origin of eoliths (see NATURE, August 31, p. 438) has now appeared in l'Anthropoidgie (Tome xvi., p. 257), and was briefly noticed in NATURE of September 28 (p. 538). The paper is too long for us, with the existing pressure upon our space, to give a full translation of it, but the following are the principal new features in the extended essay. The velocity of the circumference of the wheels in the délayeurs, or vats, is stated to be about 13 feet per second, the same as the speed of the Rhone in times of flood. It will therefore be seen that these mixing vats are of an entirely different character from ordinary pug-mills, and that the motion of the water in them may be properly described as torrential. The author attaches no importance to the fact that some of the blows to the flints are given by the iron teeth of the suspended harrows, and states that most of the flints are reduced to the condition of rolled pebbles, identical with those to be found in all flint gravels, but that there are numerous examples of retouches, or secondary working. In illustration of this he gives photographic figures of eleven different specimens by which he contends that the analogy of these flints from the cement manufactory near Mantes with the so-called eoliths from Tertiary beds is substantiated, and he regards it as undeniable that these Mantes eoliths have been produced, and are being continually produced, apart from the intention of any human being.
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On the Origin of Eoliths . Nature 72, 635–636 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072635a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072635a0