67 
and remaining open at t or being closed with a cork. The 
vessel M is in fact a large thermometer of which the stem 
and scale are at T. There is an air space which envelopes 
the vessel M, and finally, around this, we have an outer space 
filled with melting ice. W e may therefore suppose that at 
the beginning of the experiment the water in the tube t as 
well as the mercury in M will be at the temperature of 
melting ice. Now let the small body whose specific heat we 
wish to determine be dropped into the tube t. The heat 
which it carries with it will remain at the bottom of this 
tube and will be spent in very slightly heating the large 
mass of mercury in M. This mercury being surrounded 
with melting ice will receive no heat from any other quarter. 
Its expansion will therefore be a measure of the heat com- 
municated to the tube t , and although the whole rise of 
temperature of the mercury will not be great yet the mass 
being large it will act as a very open thermometer and the 
heating effect will be indicated by a rise of mercury in the 
stem T. 
“The Poisonous Qualities of the Yew,” by William E. 
A. Axon, M.R.S.L., F.S.S. 
At our meeting, on the 9th Jan., 1877, Dr. Bottomley 
made an interesting communication to the Society on the 
real or supposed toxic qualities of yew leaves. The subject 
recurred to my mind when on a recent visit to Stonyhurst, 
for the failure of the main line of the Sherburnes, the ancient 
owners of that mansion, is attributed to a similar cause. 
Richard Francis, son of Sir Nicholas Sherburne of Stonyhurst, 
died in 1702, at the age of nine, through eating some yew 
tree berries, in the fine avenue at the eastern end of that hall.* 
This tradition led me to make further inquiries. I was in- 
formed by Mr. Thomas Kirk, farmer, of Whittingham, near 
Preston, that he has known cases of the poisoning of cows 
* Hewitson’s Stonyhurst College, 1878, p. 9. 
