[73]. hôtel: (French) residence. au fait: (French) expert.
[76]. microscope: since Poe's time the microscope is, in stories, almost an invariable part of a detective's outfit.
[79]. Abernethy: John Abernethy (1764-1831). A celebrated London physician.
[80]. escritoire: "A piece of furniture with conveniences for writing, as an opening top or falling front panel, places for inkstand, pens, and stationery, etc."—Century Dictionary. Procrustean bed: In Greek mythology, Procrustes (derivatively "the stretcher") was a giant who tied those whom he caught on a bed, making them fit by stretching them out if too short, and by cutting off their limbs if too long.
[82]. Rochefoucauld: François La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680). A French moralist known for his "Maxims" published in 1665. La Bougive: In the edition of Poe's works prepared by Edmund Clarence Stedman and Professor George Edward Woodberry, this name is given as La Bruyère. Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) was a French moralist. Machiavelli: Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). A celebrated statesman and writer of Florence, Italy, whose book "The Prince" is based on unscrupulous principles. Campanella: Tomaso Campanella (1568-1639). An Italian writer.
[83]. recherché: (French) far-fetched. policial: a rare word, meaning "pertaining to the police."
[84]. non distributio medii: (Latin) a non-distribution of the middle, or the undistributed middle. This is a mistake in reasoning. When the Prefect reasons that all fools are poets, therefore all poets are fools, he has no middle term at all; that is, no class of which poets and fools are both members. Correct reasoning is represented by this: all men are mortal; John is a man; therefore John is mortal. Between mortal and John, two terms, there is a middle term, men, of which both are members. Differential Calculus: a higher form of mathematics. par excellence: (French) above all. Il y a, etc.: (French). The odds are that every public idea, every accepted convention, is a foolish trick, for it is suitable for the greatest number. Chamfort: Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794). A French writer of maxims. ambitus: (Latin) a going around. Poe means by this example and by those that follow that mere similarity of two words does not make them of the same meaning.
[85]. Bryant: Jacob Bryant (1715-1804). An English writer on mythology.
[86]. intrigant: (French) intriger.
[87]. vis inertiæ: (Latin) the force of inertia, the same as inertia, a term of physics which denotes the tendency of a body to remain at rest or in motion.