1 46 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



beyond doubt that it is a cardiac tonic of no mean 

 value. The heart's action is decreased in frequency 

 by small doses, such as 2^^^ to ^th of a grain, at the 

 same time that the cardiac pressure is distinctly in- 

 creased. These effects I have found to be durable. 

 In larger doses it generally depresses the heart's 

 action. On the whole it contrasts favourably with 

 digitalis and convallaria, and is worthy of more 

 extended observation. 



In India, the leaves [birnii) are exported to the 

 plains of the Panjab, and used medicinally as a 

 stomachic, and in Kussawar a decoction of it is 

 administered for rheumatism.^ 



Mr. Squarey reports' that two heifers were 

 killed at Brixham, Devon, from eating the leaves 

 of the Irish yew, and that two horses were killed 

 in Wiltshire by a small quantity of the same 

 variety ; thus proving that the female is poisonous 

 in a degree almost, if not altogether, equal to that 

 of the male, for all the specimens of the Irish yew, 

 with the one exception already noticed, are females. 



Lieutenant Stuart Wortley's experiments were 

 repeated by Professor Munro,^ who says : 'It is 

 quite true that in my own experiments I obtained a 

 greater quantity of crude alkaloid in all its different 

 stages of impurity from the male leaves than from 

 the female ; but I do not regard this result as at 



1 Brandis, Forest Flora of India. 



- J<nirn. Roy. Agriailt. Soc, 1S92. ' ll)id. 



