VETERINARIAN 
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VOL. XLVI. 
No. 542. 
FEBRUARY, 1873. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 218. 
Communications and Cases. 
REMARKS ON YEW POISONING. 
By Professor James Buckman, E.G.S., F.L.S. 
Perhaps you will kindly allow me to express my best thanks 
to Mr. J. Gerrard for his interesting communication on the 
subject of poisoning by yews. It was just the thing I asked 
for in the paper to which he refers/*' but though cases of the 
baneful effects of yew upon cattle are so frequent, it is curious 
that so few of them are scientifically reported upon. In the 
cases before us Mr. Gerrard has detailed the symptoms and 
post-mortem appearances so much more clearly than I as a 
non-professional man could be expected to do; but at the same 
time, I must confess that, although I feel sure that the 
animals died mainly from eating yew, the evidence is not 
sufficient to convince me that the plant acted, as we are led 
to suppose, as a narcotic poison; and I ground this opinion 
upon the fact that in the two or three cases which have come 
before me, the yew was not digested. It is certain, too, that 
in these cases the plant was dry, and it seems to me that the 
fatal irritation to the stomach and bowels was accelerated by 
this very cause, thus confirming the popular view of the 
matter. 
A case comes to my recollection in which I lost six calves 
with symptoms so like those described in the instances of so- 
called yew poisoning, that I cannot forbear directing atten¬ 
tion to them. The animals were some good short-horns, 
about nine months old. Soon after I bought them they were 
* ‘Principles of Botany,’ March, 1872. 
XLVI. 
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