Note 565 — Chapter V · EMPEDOKLES OF AKRAGAS

This passage is quoted by Aristotle (de Respir, 473 b 9), who makes the curious mistake of taking ῥινῶν for the genitive of ῥίς instead of ῥινός. The locus classicus on the subject of the klepsydra is Probl. 914 b 9 sqq. (where read αὐλοῦ for ἄλλου, b 12). The klepsydra was a metal vessel with a narrow neck (αὐλός) at the top and with a sort of strainer (ἠθμός) pierced with holes (τρήματα, τρυπήματα) at the bottom. The passage in the Problems just referred to attributes this theory of the phenomenon to Anaxagoras, and we shall see later that he also made use of a similar experiment (§ 131).