COMMON YEW. 



373 



ficiency, bows composed of two or more pieces of different 

 woods, were invented by a bowyer of Manchester, named 

 Kelsal, who, retaining the belly of the bow of Yew, backed 

 it with ash, or some other wood of elastic fibre. Up to 

 the present day this mode of making 1 the bow is very 

 generally practised ; but as various exotic woods from South 

 America, and other parts of the world, have been intro- 

 duced, possessing even superior qualities for the manu- 

 facture, the Yew is rarely used, not on this account alone, 

 but from the difficulty of obtaining a supply of its timber 

 fitted for the purpose.* 



Of the deleterious and poisonous nature of the foliage 

 and bark of the tender shoots of the Yew, both to human 

 beings and to certain animals, there can scarcely be a 

 doubt ; repeated and well-authenticated instances of fatal 

 effects having occurred after having taken them, not only 

 in this country, but also in France and other parts of the 

 Continent. It appears, however, in regard to animals, 

 that it is only when taken in quantity or unmixed with 

 other food that the effects prove fatal ; for in a course of 

 experiments made by Professor Wiborg of Copenhagen, 

 it was shown that although the leaves, when eaten alone, 

 were particularly fatal to horses, when mixed with twice 

 or thrice the quantity of oats they could be given without 

 danger. Loudon also mentions that, in the mountains of 

 Hanover and Hesse the peasants feed their cattle in part 

 with the branches of the Yew during winter ; but know- 

 ing the poisonous nature of the tree, they commence by 

 giving a very little at first, mixed with other forage, after- 

 wards they gradually augment the quantity, until at last 



* To those interested in archery, we refer our readers to Mosley's Essay on this 

 subject, and " Roberts's English Bowman," or " Hints on Archery," published in 

 1801. 



