290 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



And to him, as its guardian, homage pay, 



That from your ripening fruits he may deter 



The plundering boy ; and with his threatening scythe, 



The robber from intended rapine keep." Lib. 10. 



That the yew-leaves are a deadly poison is 

 now too well known to require our reciting 

 the opinions of Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, and 

 other ancient authors ; and that its effects are 

 as baneful to man as they are to beasts, we 

 feel it a duty to state, since many fatal acci- 

 dents have arisen from its juice being admi- 

 nistered to children for the purpose of destroy- 

 ing worms. In an age when the affluent 

 have so munificently established dispensaries 

 throughout the kingdom for distributing me- 

 dicines to the poor, there can be no excuse 

 for the ignorant dabbling with dangerous 

 herbs, and they should be as particularly 

 cautioned to avoid hungry quacks, as one 

 would the advice of needy lawyers. 



Unfortunately the quacks try their arts on 

 the simple, and the attornies on the needy, 

 Johnson says truly, 



" Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay, 

 And here the fell attorney prowls for prey." 



The profession of medicine has always 

 abounded in men of the greatest liberality 

 and philanthropy. 



