POISONOUS EFFECTS OF THE YEW. 
221 
lessness soon succeeded; the oldest vomited a little, and com- 
plained of pain in the abdomen, but the others expressed no signs 
of pain. They all died within a few hours of each other. 
Mr. Tatem, in Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii, 
p. 91, mentions, that two horses which had been employed in 
carrying fodder were put under a large yew-tree, which they crop- 
ped with eagerness. No unfavourable circumstance appeared for 
three hours ; when, having staggered a few paces, they both drop- 
ped, and before the harness could be taken off, they were dead. 
Their stomachs were contracted and inflamed (yew-leaves and 
branches were found in the stomach and intestines) in that pecu- 
liar manner which is observed to arise from the presence of 
poisons. Loudon, in his “ Encyclopaedia of Plants,” says, “ the 
twigs and leaves of yew eaten in very small quantity are certain 
death to horses and cows, but deer, it is said, will crop these trees 
with impunity ; and sheep and goats are said by Linnaeus to 
crop them. Tuikeys, peacocks, and other poultry and birds, 
eat both the leaves and fruit. A few of the berries are not 
deleterious to the human species, but the leaves are fatal.” Mr. 
Tatem mentions in Loudon’s Magazine, before quoted, that some 
young Guinea fowls were put under a coop under the shade of a 
yew-tree, the branches of which were beyond their reach ; but 
having picked up some fallen leaves, they proved fatal to the 
birds, one of them dying in half an hour afterwards.” Mr. 
Tatem further observes, “ we here see the deadly effects of the 
yew-tree, both in a green and flourishing state, and when its 
leaves are fallen and withered, and that the animal and bird 
species fall equally victims to its poison.” 
I have tasted the berries, and find the juice to be, as Smith 
describes it, sweet and mawkish ; but the berry or seed is very 
bitter and disagreeable ; and I think that the poison will be 
found to reside in the seed only, as I have been informed by 
many individuals that, when children, they had eaten the berry, 
but had rejected the seeds, and perceived no bad effects. One 
old man said that he used to eat the whole without any bad 
effect resulting. I think it very possible that the seeds may 
have been swallowed in many instances whole, and have passed 
through the intestinal canal unaltered ; but when the husk of 
the seed is broken and exposed to the gastric juice, it is then 
liable to produce fatal effects, which were as sudden in their ope- 
ration on this child as were the effects of the leaves on the 
horses beforementioned, and the effect upon the stomach was 
nearly the same. 
Lancet , vol. i, 1836-7, p. 394. 
