Note 337 — BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.

The doctrine of Aristotle on the nature and formation of mists and clouds is contained in his treatises De Meteor. lib. i. cap. 9. p. 540, and De Mundo, cap. 4. p. 605. He employs the terms ἀτμὶς, νέφος, and νεφέλη, which are translated vapor, nubes and nebula, respectively. The distinction, however, between the two latter does not appear very clearly marked either in the Greek or the Latin, the two Greek words being indiscriminately applied to either of the Latin terms.