228 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
“ These directions will enable any one to make a friend of his horse, and 
if he be addicted to any c tricks’ he can be cured. 
“ Trusting this may be of some service and amusement to the public. 
That the so-called (C horse-castor” — a name, by the bye, 
which has come upon us by surprise, for until now we never 
heard the horny excrescence on the horse^s leg so designated 
1 — has a peculiar odoriferous property is well known, and that 
this scent may be gratifying to horses we can easily under- 
stand. 
There is, however, another ahimial product which, from the 
earliest times, has been used to gain over the affections, and 
we believe it is a far more potent agent for such a purpose. 
The material to which we allude is familiar to veterinary 
surgeons as being met with in the foetal membranes of the 
mare, The term Hippomane has been applied to this sub- 
stance, but by the moderns it has been erroneously called 
“ the false tongue,” under the supposition that it was found 
in the mouth of the foal: the ancients also had an equally 
absurd opinion respecting it, believing it to adhere to the 
forehead of a newly-foaled colt, and to assist in pro- 
moting birth. In Mayne’s c Expository Lexicon of Medical 
Science,’ Hippomanes is defined as a name ee applied to 
the fluid which drops from the genital organs of the mare 
■when in heat ; also to masses of a gelatinous matter found 
floating in the fluid of the allantois in mares, to which great 
magical virtues were anciently attributed, being much used 
in philtres and love-potions/’ This substance, dried and 
powdered, is in daily use by a certain class of horse- 
men, carters, and horse-breakers, who loudly extol its 
virtues. 
That the odour belonging to many animal products is 
pleasing to the animals themselves we can readily admit : 
indeed, we cannot suppose that Nature would have caused 
them to loathe that which belongs to their special organism, 
but rather to prompt them to show a preference for it. Does 
the hunted fox nauseate at the scent of his body, or the civet 
cat turn with disgust from his? No ! Rather, on the con- 
