The store of Rabelais' sexual allusions is again tapped so that Tristram can tease the reader. Whether this reference is made for its own sake or whether Tristram actually wants to educate the reader is a constant question.
A story within his digressions — why his mother and father fought about something — is interrupted because there are more important digressive matters to go into. Tristram's control of the story is again obvious: most readers will find that they had forgotten about Walter when Tristram reminds them that thirty-five minutes have passed since the time be said that he would come back to Walter in half an hour. Tristram isn't quite ready to get back to his father; the tale from Slawkenbergius comes first.
Toby's question, "Can noses be dissolved?" stimulated by Walter's speaking of "solutions of noses" while his brother was distracted, is considered to be one of the funniest lines in English literature; the complete absurdity of the question, however, gives a sort of perspective to Walter's point. The question is actually no more absurd than the basic premise that it is worthwhile to write treatises about noses.
