547 
ON THE POISON OF THE YEW-TREE. 
By Mr. James Beeson, F.S., Amersham. 
Since divers opinions exist as to the effect of the yew-tree on* 
the horse, an account of the following circumstance may be 
deemed not altogether unworthy your notice : — 
On Friday the 5th instant, I was sent for in haste to Mr. 
Ives, of Priestwood, near Great Missenden, Bucks, a highly 
respectable farmer of that place. The messenger informed me 
that two horses had died suddenly in the field while at work; 
and Mr. Ives wished me to come immediately, fearful that 
others might fall also. I rode away without delay, and pro¬ 
ceeded in the first place to examine the living horses, and satis¬ 
fied myself and those about me that they were very well; and 
then went with Mr. Ives into the field to examine the dead 
ones. Having laid open the abdomen, and while removing the 
intestines, the first thing that particularly claimed my attention 
was the smallness of the stomach; it was contracted to one- 
third its natural size. Night now having overtaken us, we took 
the stomach home for further examination, leaving every thing 
else behind for the morrow’s daylight. The stomach contained only 
a small quantity of chyme, with a branch of yew-tree of small 
size. The villous coat of the stomach exhibited patches of 
ecchymosis. From this circumstance I was led to suspect that 
the horses were poisoned by eating the yew-leaves. I went next 
morning for further investigation of the matter, and found a 
considerable quantity of yew throughout the small intestines and 
caecum, and a little in the colon. 
I examined the other horse, and found him precisely the same 
as the first. His stomach was alike contracted, and exhibited 
the same kind of patches of inflammation, as also did the inner 
coat of the small intestines of both horses, but not so much as 
the stomachs. The thoracic and abdominal viscera were other¬ 
wise quite healthy. The brain appeared not to have suffered any 
change from a healthy state ; the membranes were not more 
vascular than usually observed in health: there was no conges¬ 
tion of the vessels, certainly not; but the fluid generally ob¬ 
served in the ventricles of the brain was, in the instance before 
us, entirely wanting. Not a single drop escaped on detaching 
the brain from the ethmoid bones, nor was there any in the 
lateral ventricle. One brain was examined on the third day, and 
the other on the fourth day after death. 
Mr. Ives’s horses were employed that day in carrying clover 
