28 [But, query, Is there not an unsolved mystery about birds and flying? They seem to me to be sustained in the air by some faculty not yet understood.]
29 Viscera. This word includes the heart, lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines.
30 Cratis, properly "wicker-work."
33 Anguimanus,-a word applied by Lucretius to the elephant.
34 [Yet Lucretuis has originality and genius of an order far nobler than that of moderns who copy his follies.]
35 Ratio. Nearly equivalent its this place to "providentia."
37 [The amazing proportions imparted to all things created, in correspondence with their relations to man and to the earth, is beautifully hinted by our author.]
38 [The snout of the elephant and the neck of the giraffe were developed from their necessities, etc. Modern Science, passim.]
39 [In our days reproduced as progress.]
40 Cerneret, "to see so as to distinguish;" a stronger word than "video."
41 Praeposterus; having the last first, and the first last.
46 [An amusing persistency in the enforcement of this idea.]
47 Omnis. Others read "orbis."
49 Coelo. Some believed that the soul was of fire.
50 Foratu, "the process of boring;" foramen, "the aperture thus made."
54 Hauriendis, from which "aures" is said to be formed.
55 Aeneid, iv. 359. [The English verb bother (= both ear) is an amusing comment on the adaptation of ears to unwelcome voices.]
60 Cum modo: "in a measured degree."
62 Ciliorum. The word properly denotes the edge of the eyelid, in which the eyelash is fixed; said to be derived from "cilleo," to move.
63 Oculi, as though derived from "occulere," to conceal.
64 Palpitatio. Hence "palpebrae," the eyelids.
67 Xenophon, Memorabilia, i. 4.]
70 Lingua, as though from "ligando."
77 Brachia. The fore-arms, from the hand to the elbow.
79 Lacerti, The arm from the elbow to the shoulder.
81 i.e., pollex, as though from "polleo," to prevail.
83 Rarum, i.e., loose in texture.
85 Ne plenum quidem. Some editions omit "ne," but it seems to be required by the sense; the lungs not being compact and solid, as the liver, but of a slighter substance.
86 Flandi et spirandi. The former word denotes the process of sending forth, the latter of inhaling, the air.
87 Animam, the vital principle, as differing from the rational.