Note 128 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Spanish, sacabuches consistol y deresistol, a transcriber’s error for con sistol y diastol (this phrase omitted in D.); a play on words, as the sackbut forms the various tones by lengthening and shortening the instrument. The phrase systole and diastole is now applied to the alternate contraction and expansion of the heart; San Agustin apparently uses it through fondness for a learned phrase.