YEW. 291 



" Patient in all their trials, they sustain 



The starts of passion, the reproach of pain ; 



With hearts affected, but with looks serene, 



Intent they wait through all the solemn scene ; 



Glad if a hope should rise from nature's strife, 



To aid their skill and savethe lingering life ; 



But this must virtue's generous effort be, 



And springs from nobler motives than a fee." Crabbe. 



As few people would in this age be able to 

 plead ignorance of the poisonous nature of 

 yew-leaves, it is a doubt whether their admi- 

 nistering this fatal juice to children against 

 worms would not subject them to a trial for 

 murder, in case of accident. 



Julius Caesar, in his Commentaries, says that 

 Cativulces, king of the Eburones, poisoned 

 himself with the juice of the yew. Aubrey 

 relates a case of two women who died from a 

 drink of it ; and Dr. Percival of Manchester 

 mentions another of three children, who were 

 killed by a spoonful of the green leaves, which 

 was given them for worms ; they died with- 

 out agony, or any of the usual symptoms of 

 vegetable poisons. The same quantity of the 

 dried leaves had been given the day before 

 without effect. 



A clergyman, who was curate in Sussex, 

 informed me (says Dr. Marty n), that a young 

 lady and her servant, his parishioners, beini>- 

 seized with an ague, were advised to take a 



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