a sort of poison, famous among the ancients as an ingredient in amorous philters or love-charms. The word is Greek ἱππομανής, composed of ἵππος, "a horse," and μανία, "fury or madness."

Authors are not agreed about the nature of the hippomanes. Pliny describes it as a blackish caruncle found on the head of a new-born-colt; which the dam bites off and eats as soon as she is delivered. He adds, that if she be prevented herein by any one's cutting it off before, she will not take to, nor bring up the young. Virgil, and after him Servius and Columella, describe it as a poisonous matter trickling from the pudendum of a mare when proud, or longing for the horse. At the end of Mr Bayle's dictionary is a very learned dissertation on the hippomanes, and all its virtues both real and pretended.