NARCOTIC POISONS 



55 



partially lost, and the patient uses his limbs, as Captain Rutherford has 

 said, like an animal " going upstairs ". 



Opium and belladonna in poisonous doses may be followed by delirium, 

 but the condition of intoxication, the staggering gait, and final stupor are 



common to all drugs of this class. 



YEW 



Having regard to the number of animals killed by this evergreen, one 

 might ask if its place in arboriculture could not well be taken by some 

 equally beautiful and less deadly plant. 



No season passes without fatalities to horses or cattle as the result of 

 eating it. A tree may have been 

 left untouched for years by animals 

 pastured in its vicinity, until the 

 stock -owner is lulled into a sense 

 of security, and finally forgets its 

 presence ; or animals may be thought 

 safe in a paddock, free from noxious 

 plants, when a neighbour sets about 

 lopping his overgrown yews, and the 

 fatal branches fall within reach of 

 animals, whose curiosity prompts 

 them to eat the leaves. There is 

 reason to believe that in certain con- 

 ditions and circumstances yew may 

 be partaken of with impunity, while 

 at other times its effects are rapidly 

 fatal. The green shoots have been 



experimentally fed to animals, and the results were very indefinite. If 

 taken upon a full stomach, its toxic influence would seem to be more or 

 less neutralized, while hungry animals have rapidly succumbed. Whether 

 this latter result has come about from the larger quantity consumed, or 

 from the empty state of the stomach, or from both causes combined, 

 cannot be definitely stated. 



Symptoms are those of a narcotic irritant poison. The animal is 

 found dazed, and stumbles when made to move, falling down and showing 

 the ordinary signs of intoxication. Respiration is shallow, the pulse op- 

 pressed, and the extremities are cold. Digestion would appear to be dis- 

 ordered or arrested, and, as a result, more or less tympany is present. 

 Post-mortem examination is satisfactory only in so far that it reveals the 



Fig. 453.— Yew (Taxus baccata) 



