Poisonous Qualities of the Yew. 
clxix 
Everybody would also admit that, so 
far as they had already experienced, t he 
action of the Board of Agriculture, in 
the hands of the new President of 
that Department, had been everything 
that the agricultural community could 
desire. But still there seemed to be 
some hesitation with regard to en- 
forcing the law in this particular 
case. Unless he was entirely mis- 
taken in his reading of the law, it 
was absolutely explicit on this point : 
if the fact were established that the 
diseased animals were from Canada, 
then in his judgment there was no 
alternative. The Board of Agricul- 
ture was bound to rescind the special 
exemption under which alone Cana- 
dian animals were brought into the 
interior of the country. At present 
the Act of Parliament laid down 
positively that foreign animals could 
only be landed at the Foreign Ani- 
mals Wharf, and that they were not 
to leave that wharf alive. It was 
true that under certain circumstances 
foreign animals could be specially 
exempted from the operation of this 
clause ; but these circumstances re- 
quired that the Board of Agriculture 
should be satisfied that the laws in 
the country from which the animals 
came, and the sanitary conditions of 
the animals, were such as to give 
reasonable security against the impor- 
tation of disease. He ventured to 
suggest that it was impossible for 
these conditions to be fulfilled, when 
they knew that at the present time 
diseased animals were coming from 
Canada. He thought that the views 
of that Council, which he believed 
were very widely shared by the agri- 
cultural community as a whole, 
should be submitted to the Board of 
Agriculture with as little delay as 
possible, and that they should exer- 
cise all the influence which they could 
legitimately command to secure the 
enforcement of the law. (Hear, hear.) 
Sir Matthew Kidley said it ap- 
peared to him that they ought to ask 
for the deputation as soon as possible. 
Of course that must be in the hands 
of the Board of Agriculture, but at 
the same time they ought to remem- 
ber that every twenty-four hours was 
of importance. 
Sir Nigel Kingscote said that he 
bad been about to rise to suggest the 
same thing. He thought that they 
ought to press urgently that the de- 
putation should be received not later 
than Saturday. 
The terms of the following letter to 
the President of the Board of Agri- 
culture having been unanimously 
approved, it was signed by the Presi- 
dent, and despatched immediately by 
hand : — 
November 2nd, 1892. 
Sir, — I have the honour to inform 
you that at a meeting of the Coun- 
cil of the Eoyal Agricultural So- 
ciety of England, held to-day, it 
was unanimously resolved to re- 
quest you to receive a deputation 
from this Society with reference 
to the recent occurrence of cases 
of contagious pleuro-pneumonia 
amongst cattle imported into Scot- 
land from Canada, and to urge 
upon your Board to put at once 
into force the Act of 1878 by re- 
scinding the special regulations 
under which Canadian cattle are 
at present exempted from slaughter 
at the port. 
In view of the extreme import- 
ance and urgency of this matter, I 
am to express the hope of the 
Council that it may be possible for 
you to receive the deputation on 
some day not later than Saturday 
next. 
I am. Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
AVestminstee, President. 
The President of the Board of 
Agriculture.* 
Poisonous Qualities of the Yew. 
Earl Cathcaet, referring to the 
discussions which had recently taken 
place in The Times as to certain cases 
of poisoning of live stock, alleged to 
be due to the eating of yew, asked 
what was known as to the poisonous 
properties of the yew; whether the 
poison belonged to one sex only of 
the tree or to both sexes ; also 
whether fatal results might not be 
attributed to the mechanical action 
' [Subsequently to the rising of the Council, 
a telegram was r^eived fiom the Secretary to 
the Board of Agriculture, stating that the 
President would reotivc the deputation at 
3 p.M. on Friday, November 4, at 3, St. James's 
Square (see page cl.'ixviii) ] 
