[229] Q. Curtius, and some other authors, say the Ganges is the largest river in India; but Ammianus Marcellinus concurs with Cicero in calling the river Indus the largest of all rivers.
[230] These Etesian winds return periodically once a year, and blow at certain seasons, and for a certain time.
[231] Some read mollitur, and some molitur; the latter of which P. Manucius justly prefers, from the verb molo, molis; from whence, says he, molares dentes, the grinders.
[232] The weasand, or windpipe.
[233] The epiglottis, which is a cartilaginous flap in the shape of a tongue, and therefore called so.
[234] Cicero is here giving the opinion of the ancients concerning the passage of the chyle till it is converted to blood.
[235] What Cicero here calls the ventricles of the heart are likewise called auricles, of which there is the right and left.
[236] The Stoics and Peripatetics said that the nerves, veins, and arteries come directly from the heart. According to the anatomy of the moderns, they come from the brain.
[237] The author means all musical instruments, whether string or wind instruments, which are hollow and tortuous.
[238] The Latin version of Cicero is a translation from the Greek of Aratus.