Note (return) — MISCELLANIES.
Reading edition
"This word was a pons asinorum to some good Grecians,—but that is probably its meaning[4]; at least making it the name of a problem gets over all difficulty. The allusion is to the flight of Helle, who turned giddy in taking a flying leap, mounted on a ram, and fell into the sea;—so weak a head fails in crossing the pons. The problem was invented by Pythagoras, 'and it hath been called by barbarous writers of the latter time Dulcarnon,'—Billingsley. This name may have been invented after our author's time. Query δολκαρηνον."