124 
POISONING OF TWO STEERS WITH YEW. 
sembled black paint. I ordered gruel and mashes to be con- 
tinued. This animal perfectly recovered. 
Feeling convinced that the attack arose from some poison, 
I examined the garden from which the steers had been turned 
out, and found there a yew fence, the twigs of which had 
been abundantly cropped. I was therefore certain whence 
the mischief had arisen, and proceeded to make a post- 
mortem examination of the dead steer. 
On opening the abdomen, the peritoneal covering of the 
rumen was seen slightly inflamed in patches. The small 
intestines, externally, were in the same state. The second, 
third, and fourth stomachs were healthy. The liver and other 
vital organs were normal, except the vessels of the brain, 
which were highly congested. 
The contents of the rumen consisted of a large quantity 
of grass and yew twigs mingled together. 
[In connection with the above case, we may be permkted 
to state that we have very lately received the first and second 
stomachs and their contents, of a bullock, sent by Mr. E. 
Bailey, M.RC.V.S., Leicester. One of two, he states, that 
had dropped down dead without indicating any previous 
suffering. 
Mr. Bailey, knowing there were plantations near the fields 
in which the animals had been grazing, and in which yew 
trees were growing, very properly instituted inquiries as to 
the possibility of their getting at these trees and browsing 
on them. He was replied to in the negative, but afterwards 
it was ascertained that a probability existed that they might 
have done so; but of it there was no certainty: also, that 
other animals had been feeding with these and were not 
affected. 
We were, nevertheless, strongly inclined to think that yew 
had been the poisoning agent. The sudden falling of the 
animal, and expiring almost without a struggle, being the 
effects we have known to result from large quantities of this 
vegetable having been given to the ox-tribe ; and on washing 
a portion of the contents of the rumen, we were confirmed 
in our suspicions by finding some sprigs of the yew: the 
fact was thus established. 
The post-mortem appearances, in the stomachs sent, were 
somewhat peculiar. On the outer surface of the rumen and 
reticulum no change in colour could be perceived, but on the 
inner surface of both these stomachs — in patches in parti- 
cular— the dense epithelium which covers the mucous coat 
was easily detached, when the parts beneath were found of 
