d to General Washington, and from
whom he could very possibly obtain some information respecting the aged
"nurse" of the first President of the United States mentioned in his note.

W. W.

Malta.

_Passage in Virgil_ (Vol. viii., p. 370.).--The passage for which your
correspondent R. FITZSIMONS makes inquiry is to be found in the Eighth
Eclogue, at the 44th and following lines:

"Nunc scio quid sit Amor," &c.

The application by Johnson seems to be so plain as to need no explanation.

F. B--W.

_Love Charm from a Foal's Forehead_ (Vol. viii., p. 292.).--Your
correspondent H. P. will find the love charm, consisting of a fig-shaped
excrescence on a foal's forehead, and called _Hippomanes_, alluded to by
Juvenal, _Sat._ VI. 133.:

"Hippomanes, carmenque loquar, coctumque venenum,
Privignoque datum?"

And again, 615.:

"ut avunculus ille Neronis,
Cui totam tremuli frontem Caesonia pulli
Infudit."

It was supposed that the dam swallowed this excrescence immediately on the
birth of her foal, and that, if prevented doing so, she lost all affection
for it.

However, the name Hippomanes was applied to two other things. Theocritus
(II. 48.) uses it to signify some herb which incites horses to madness if
they eat of it.

And again, Virgil (_Geor._ III. 280.), Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, &c.,
represent it as a certain _virus_:

"Hippomanes cupidae stillat ab inguine equae."

The subject is an unpleasant one, and H. P. is referred for farther
information to Pliny, VIII. 42. s. 66., and XXVIII. 11. s. 80.

H. C. K.

This lump was called _Hippomanes_; which also more truly designated,
according to Virgil, another thing. The following paragraphs from Mr.
Keightley's excellent _Notes on Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics_ will fully
explain both meanings:

"_Hippomanes_, horse-rage: the pale yellow fluid which passes from a
mare at that season [_i. e._ when she is horsing] (cf. _Tibul._ II. 4.
58.), of which the smell (_aura_, v. 251.) incites the horse.

"_Vero nomine._ Because the bit of flesh which was said to be on the
forehead of the new-born foal, and which the mare was supposed to
swallow, was called by the same name (see _AEn._ IV. 515.); and also a
plant in Arcadia (_Theocr._ II. 48.). With respect to the former
Hippomanes, Pliny, who detailed truth and falsehood with equal faith,
says (VIII. 42.) that it grows on the foal's forehead; is of the