388 
MEDICINAL EFFECT OF THE YEW SEED. 
raising an energetic action in the tumour, iodine in the form of 
ointment, 2 drachms to 4 ounces of lard, should be well rubbed 
into the tumour every day until absorption of the tumour takes place. 
If it is still found that the tumour resists these remedies, it should be 
freely cut into with a lancet (as there is always some matter in the 
tumour), and a little tow put into the wound twice a-day, smeared 
with blistering ointment, or dipped in a strong solution of sulphate 
of copper. 
In the early stages of the disease in the animals which seem to 
have a more robust constitution than is generally the case in those 
attacked with the disease, it may be worth while to try what can 
be done to stop the progress of inflammatory action by bleeding 
and purging ; but it will in general, I think, be found that this plan 
is not to be put in competition with the one I have already recom- 
mended. 
Where the disease seems to rage to the extent it has done in 
Inver-Brora, some means oi preventing the disease is preferable to 
curing it; and as I think I have shewn that it depends so much on 
the want of proper shelter, it will become worth the consideration 
of the proprietor or farmer in such situations, where no other plan 
to insure the same success can be attempted, to try the slow but 
sure remedy of belts of planting, so disposed as to protect both the 
cattle and the crops, and thereby improve the farm for every kind 
of agriculture. 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
ON THE MEDICINAL EFFECT OF THE YEW SEED. 
By W. J. T. MORTON, Esq. f Lecturer on Chemistry and the 
Materia Medica at the Royal Veterinary College. 
Many are the discrepancies, as you know, respecting the action 
of yew on our domesticated animals. I do not, for a moment, -hope 
to be enabled to reconcile the conflicting statements ; but the fol- 
lowing experiment seems to possess some novelty and interest : — 
The yew (taxus baccata) of which we have but one, or, at the 
most two, known European species, belongs, according to the late 
Professor Burnett, to the family of pines, a numerous and import- 
ant class of trees. 
He says that “ the succulent coat of the yew-berry has a sweet 
and sickly taste ; it is, however, wholly innoxious, although the 
seeds are said to be unwholesome. The leaves also are poisonous, 
at least to some animals ; for, notwithstanding deer, sheep, and 
