85 
The total imports into Liverpool for seven years is 
1;366,309 packages, making an average of 195,184 packages 
per year; or 3,753 packages per week. The total imports 
into the Kingdom for the last four yea.rs runs, for 1809, 
434,560 packages; 1810, 56,090; for 1811, 321,250; and 
for 1812, 258,620 packages. Total, 1,574,520, averaging 
393,630 packages per year, or 7,570 packages per week. 
April 24th. The ship Tobin arrived at Liverpool from 
Bahia with 4,296 bags of cotton. 
From this table it appears that from the years 1806 to 
1812 American cotton had been imported in large quantities. 
“On the Poisonous Properties of Yew-leaves,” by James 
Bottomley, D.Sc. 
In the Field for December 23rd is a letter from Professor 
B. V. Tuson, relative to the poisonous action of yew-leaves 
on pheasants. At the end of his letter he promises to make 
an examination of the toxic properties of this tree, which 
up to the present time do not seem to hawe been fairly in- 
vestigated. In November, 1871, a similar case came under 
my notice. A number of pheasants were found dead on the 
estate of Mr. Baring, in Hampshire. Four of the birds 
were sent to me for examination. Three of them contained 
in their craws considerable quantities of yew-leaves along 
with grain. The craw of the fourth bird contained neither 
grain nor yew ; there was only a little mucus, distended 
with bubbles of air. The yew had no doubt passed into 
the alimentary canal and could not be very distinctly recog- 
nised. In the course of the investigation I found that apart 
from botanical characteristics the yew could yield well 
marked chemical reactions. It became necessary to subject 
yew -leaves to the same process as would be used to separate 
strychnine from animal tissue, the ethereal extract finally 
obtained having been evaporated to drive off the ether. 
There remained on the evaporating basin a thin varnish-like 
