  We consider continuous media in which contact edge forces are present.
Introducing the notion of quasi-balanced contact force distribution, we are
able to prove the conjectures by Noll and Virga [1] concerning the
representation of contact edge forces. We generalize the Hamel-Noll theorem on
the Cauchy postulate. Then we adapt the celebrated tetrahedron construction of
Cauchy in order to obtain a representation theorem for stress states. In fact,
we show that two stress tensors of order two and three are necessary for such a
representation. Moreover we f nd the relationship between the notion of
interstitial working introduced by Dunn and Serrin [2] and the notion of
contact edge force.
