Yen: Pu'ti'jning. 
713 
copy by some metropolitan reader.' There is little in English 
works beyond the following important statement by Taylor, 
which has but an indirect bearing on the point under discussion. 
“ Infusion of yew leaves, which is popularly called yew-tree tea, is 
sometimes used for the purpose of procuring abortion by ignorant 
midwives. A case of death from a person di’inkiug this infusion is 
reported in the registration returns for 1838-9. In the returns 
for 1840 there is also one death of a female, mt. 34, referred to 
as having eaten the berries of the yew.” The subject of poison- 
ing by 3 * *ew leaves in reference to their employment for purposes 
of abortion has been investigated by Chevallier, Duchesne, and 
Eeynal.'' Yew leaves thus appear to share a special physiological 
action with those of savin, a shrub of the same botanical tribe. 
Of course mpst toxicological and pharmaceutical manuals refer 
to the otten reported cases of cattle poisoning by yew, but add 
no direct evidence. 
Admitting the general weight of evidence to be in favour of 
yew leaves being sometimes poisonous and even fatal to animals 
and human beings, it does not seem to follow that taxine is the 
chief or only poisonous principle present, or even with any 
certainty (unless Borchers’ experiments were conclusive) that 
taxine is a poisonous alkaloid. 
It is rather probable than otherwise that taxine is not the 
only alkaloid pi’esent in the yew, it being more common for a 
medicinal or poisonous plant to contain several alkaloids than 
one. "When several are present it by no means follows that 
all are poisonous. Amato and Caparelli, indeed, appear to 
have obtained a second alkaloid, or at any rate a “ nitrogenous 
crystalline substance,” in the course of their search for taxine. 
Notwithstanding the general agreement, there are some 
discrepancies in the published accounts of taxine. All agree as 
to the diflBculty of preparing even its salts in the piu-e state, but 
the first two say the alkaloid itself is a crystalline powder, whilst 
the most recent say^s it cannot be crystallised. Marme describes 
it as having no smell, whilst Amato and Caparelli’s alkaloid had 
a “ musty smell.” Marme (followed by Drageudorff in his 
standard work on “ Plant Analysis ” ) says it is readilj' soluble 
in benzine, Hilger and Brande that it is insoluble in benzine. 
Marme states that its solutions are not precipitated by chloride 
of gold or chloride of platinum, Hilger and Brande that it is 
precipitated by both of these reagents. The possibility of chemical 
change during the processes employed for extraction and purifi- 
' It does not appear to be in the Library of the Chemical Society, or in 
that of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
• Ann. d' Hygiene, 1855, Yol. II., pp. 91 and 335. 
3 c 2 
