Note 45 — BOOK II.
Rowland Smith translation
In case the reader wishes to understand the philosophy of the gnat's trumpet, we insert the following passage from Cumberland's Trans. of the "Clouds" of Aristophanes.
Disciple. "'Twas put to Socrates, if he could say, when a goat humm'd, whether the sound did issue from mouth or tail.
Streps. Aye; marry, what said he?
Disciple. He said your gnat doth blow his trumpet backwards From a sonorous cavity within him, Which being filled with breath, and forced along The narrow pipe or rectum of his body, Doth vent itself in a loud hum behind."