Note 2263 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

The organ was so called by the ancients, from the resemblance borne by its pipes to “hydraula,” or water-pipes, and from the fact of the bellows being acted on by the pressure of water. According to an author quoted by Athenæus, B. iv. c. 75, the first organist was Ctesibius of Alexandria, who lived about B.C. 200. It is not improbable that Pliny refers to this invention in B. vii. c. 38. The pipes of the organ of Ctesibius were partly of bronze and partly of reed, and Tertullian describes it as a very complicated instrument.