S76 GONIFERJE. 



All the samples of the drug which we have obtained from 

 Bengal, Northern, Western and Southern India have consisted 

 of the leafy twigs of the yew chopped in lengths of from one 

 to two inches. 



The yew was known to the Greeks and Romans as a poisonous 

 plant.* Modern enquiry has shown that the leaves and seeds 

 are poisonous, but not the red pulp surrounding the latter. 

 The leaves have, however, been recommended in doses of 

 from 1 to 5 grains in epilepsy and other spasmodic affections. 

 As an abortive they have been often administered, and have 

 generally proved fatal to the woman, without causing the expul- 

 sion of the foetus. Moderate doses given to animals occasion 

 hurried breathing and palpitation of the heart, followed by 

 recovery, and larger doses produce a similar effect followed by 

 death from syncope. Very large doses appear to produce death 

 by syncope without pain or spasm. According to Borcher s 

 (1876) experiments, taxine reduces the pulse and respirations 

 and causes convulsions, with fatal asphyxia. (Husemann.) 

 After death the evidences of gastro-intestinal inflammation 

 have generally been slight, the heart was usually empty, the 

 kidneys strongly congested, and the blood less coagulated than 

 usual. The effects produced upon man by poisonous doses of 

 yew resemble those above mentioned as occurring in animals: 

 after large doses the nervous irritation, exhaustion and gastric 

 disturbance may be very trifling, the patient dying by 

 syncope. 



Description. — The drug consists of the small branches 

 of the tree with their linear-lanceolate, narrow, rigid veinless 

 leaves cut up into short length (1 to 2 inches). The male 

 flowers are to be found upon some of the sprigs, and resemble 

 those of the conmion yew. The wood of the larger stems is 

 that of a yew, and not of a pine. 



Ohemical composition. — Statements have been made at differ- 

 ent times as to the presence in the leaves and fruit of the yew 

 ( Tams^ baccata) o^^ nalkaloidal principle. In 1876 {Pharm. 



ra^os and trpttXa^, Dios. i, 80; Plin. 16, 20. 



