I'OIBONING JiV YEW. Ifif) 



With reu-ard to iujurioiis substances taken us food, if. is 

 unquestionable tliat |)lieasants are sometimes destroyed by 

 eating yew, tlie seeds as well as the leaves having proved 

 fatal ; but it is singular that the jjrecise conditions under 

 wliieh they are poisoned have not been ascertained. The 

 poisoning of a.nimals from eating these leaves is so well known 

 that damnges have been claimed and obtained, after an ayipeal 

 to tlie higher courts, by persons who have lost cattle, horses, 

 or sheep, in consequence of the branches of yew trees being 

 allowed to hang over fences, or the cutting of hedges being 

 thrown upon the ground. In conjunction with the late 

 Professor Tuson, of the Veterinary College, I investigated, 

 several years ago, the })oisoning of pheasants by vew 

 leaves, of which many instances are recorded, d'he action 

 of the poisonous leaves in producing intlanmiation of the 

 intestines was so well njarked that there could be ikj 

 |)Ossible doubt of the cause of death; Ijut the circumstances 

 that, led well-fed pheasants to eat yew leaves on some 

 occasions, and not to touch them on others, are difficult (.)f 

 explanaticn. The ])oisoned birds that I have examined have 

 always been highly nourished, extremely fat, and in good 

 condition, and, so far from lieing hungry, their crops in manv 

 instances have been filled with maize. 



Lieut. P. Stuart AVortley, then working at the Agricultural 

 College, Downton, wrote a letter t(j the Tinier nf Aug. 19, 

 1892, in which In^ described a number of experiments 

 performed with a view of ascertaining' the amount ot the 

 poisomius principle known as taxine in the leaves of th 

 male and female yew respectively. His experiments v/ent to 

 provi' that taxine exists in a much lai'ger c[uautity in the 

 leaves of the male than in those of the female yew. If this 

 taxine is the active principle, his experiments indicate that 

 <mly the male yew is poisonous, but no tests which can be 

 regarded as conclusive have yet been made. It would be 

 verv desirable that some observer who has the opportunity 

 should ascertain by acttial experiments whether there is any 



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