Note (6) — BOOK I.

6. Asperity.) Ten of the most ancient editions mentioned by Morgagni[ ID ] read contactum; but as that seems to convey no convenient sense, others prefer contractum, which is found in one of the manuscripts, and suppose it to mean asperity, a sense which it is not found to bear elsewhere; and therefore, Constantine boldly enough substitutes confractum, which he thinks agreeable to this interpretation. The same reason may, perhaps, have led him to that alteration, as induced the others to explain contractum by asperity, that it might stand in opposition to smoothness. For my own part, though confractus is not found in any other classic, yet I have given this translation, because I can find no other sense of the place, as it now stands. If I durst offer my own conjecture, ἀπόζυμος γαστὴρI would rather chuse to read anfractum, which, I think, is applicable to the windings of some of the internal parts.