HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
XXXY11 
Ordinary Meeting, 18th March, 1884, at Watford. 
George Eooper, Esq., F.Z.S., Yice-President, in the Chair. 
Miss S. Horn, Thundridge Yicarage, Ware; Mr. Arthur B. 
Taylor, Chadwell Lodge, Ware; and the Bev. H. P. Waller, B.A., 
High Street, Hoddesdon, were elected Members of the Society. 
The following papers were read:— 
1. “ Notes on Lepidoptera observed in the neighbourhood of 
Sandridge, Herts.” By A. F. Griffith, M.A. ( Transactions, Yol. 
Ill, p. 58.) 
2. “Notes on Mosses, with an Outline of a Hertfordshire Moss- 
Flora. By A. E. Gibbs. ( Transactions , Yol. Ill, p. 67.) 
3. “Notes on Birds observed in Hertfordshire during the year 
1883.” By John E. Littleboy. {Transactions, Yol. Ill, p. 82.) 
Ordinary Meeting, 15th April, 1884, at Watford. 
George Eooper, Esq., F.Z.S., Yice-President, in the Chair. 
The following papers were read:— 
1. “ List of Flowering Plants observed in Hertfordshire during 
the year 1883.” By Ada Selby. ( Transactions , Yol. Ill, p. 101.) 
2. “ Beport on Insects observed in Hertfordshire during the year 
1883.” By F. W. Silvester, F.B.Met.Soc. ( Transactions , Yol. 
Ill, p. 91.) 
3. “ Notes on some Scolecida.” By Alfred T. Brett, M.D. 
4. “ On the Poisonous Effects of the Common Yew.” By Alfred 
T. Brett, M.D. 
Dr. Brett gave the following recent instances of the poisonous effects of the 
common Yew, Taxus baccala :— 
In January ten steers broke into a plantation at Aldenham in the night, where 
several young yew trees were growing. At seven o’clock the following morning 
one steer was found dead, one died an hour afterwards, and another died on the 
third day. The other seven were very ill, and the hair on the chest and neck 
turned almost black. At a post-mortem examination made by Mr. Elitt, leaves 
of the yew were found in the stomach. Early in the present month (April) Mr. 
Elitt also attended a case of yew-poisoning at Leavesden, in a short-horn heifer, 
which, however, recovered in a few days. The yew tree was nearly out of reach, 
and only a few leaves had been eaten. In this month also a cow, belonging to 
Mr. A. H. Hibbert, was poisoned by eating leaves of the Irish yew, which, after 
death, were found in its stomach. 
Dr. Brett had also heard, at different times, of the death of three horses from 
eating yew, one having eaten dry cuttings and the others fresh leaves. He 
thought that there was something in the effects of the. yew which required 
explanation, for in many cases cattle had access to yew trees and were not 
poisoned. The tree being so common, it was, he thought, strange that cases of 
poisoning were not more numerous, and he suggested that there might be 
different varieties of Taxus baccala , some of which were poisonous and others 
not so, or that, as the yew is dioecious, one sex only might he poisonous. In 
answer to his enquiry as to the present state of our knowledge of the poison 
of the yew, Professor Attfield had sent him the following notes : — 
“ I do not know of any case of poisoning by yew in Hertfordshire prior to 
