Yew roisoning. 
709 
recorded in the British Medical Journal for 1870, in a case in 
which only five grains of the leaves were found in the stomach. 
Death took place within an hour from the time the symptoms 
commenced. These symptoms were pallor of the face, faintness, 
an almost imperceptible pulse, facial convulsions, foaming at the 
mouth, stertorous breathing, loss of consciousness, and death. 
Similar symptoms have been observed in animals thus poisoned. 
In January, 1855, a flock of sheep broke through a hedge into a 
garden where there wei’e many yew bushes. Of fifty-three, only 
eleven recovered from the poison. After eating the yew the 
sheep were unable to walk, foamed at the mouth, and were very 
stupid. The last died after lingering for ten days : its intes- 
tines were found to be intensely inflamed. Similar inflamma- 
tion has been noticed in i)ost-mortem examinations of human 
beings poisoned by yew. 
There are, however, many cases known and recorded in 
which animals have browsed on yew, or been fed with it experi- 
mentally, without sufiering any apparent injury. Prof. Sim- 
onds, many years ago, made such a series of experiments, 
giving considerable quantities of yew mixed with their food 
to oxen, and continuing to do so for some time without ob- 
serving any appreciable influence on tliem. But, in estimating 
tlie value of experiments yielding no results, it should be re- 
membered that all the individuals of the same kind of animal 
are not affected alike by the same poison. Similar unaccount- 
able differences in the action of the poison have been often 
observed in man. 
Attempts have been made to account for this difference 
among animals, and the cause of death has frequently been 
attributed to some accidental circumstances observed in fatal 
cases. Thus, partly withered leaves having caused death, it 
has been erroneously assumed that the leaves in this state are 
more fatal than when fresh. Again, animals taking the leaves 
into an empty stomach, and having died, it has been falsely 
assumed that an empty stomach is a necessary condition in the 
production of a fatal result. In other cases the animals, after 
eating the yew, have been observed to take a draught of water, 
and the water has got the credit of developing the poisonous 
properties of the yew. The inflammatory condition of the ali- 
mentary canal noticed in liost-mcrrtem examinations has been 
ascribed to the mechanical action of the sharp points of the 
leaves instead of to the presence of the irritant poison. 
In Hampshire a notion has long prevailed that the sexes pi 
the yew differ toxically. As is well known, the stamens or male 
organs, and the pistil or female organ, are not in the yew produced 
