Taxus baccata, Linn.

Natural order , Coniferæ.

Common names , Yew; (G.). Eibe; (Fr.), L'If.

Authorities.

1 , Selle, from Gesner's Sammlung, 1742 (Franck's Mag., 4, p. 342), a boy, æt. five years, was poisoned by the berries; 2 , Thomas Percival, M.D., Essays Med. Phil. and Exper., 1807. p. 180, death of three children, æt. five, four and three years, from eating the fresh leaves. ( 3 to 6 , Dr. Gastier, Bibliotheq. Hom. de Geneva, vol. 4 p. 193, 1835, provings on healthy persons.)

3 , 3 or 4 drops of 2d dil. before breakfast for three successive days; 4 , 2 drops of mother tincture on two successive days; 5 , half a cup of infusion of leaves two successive mornings; 6 , effects on Gastier himself; 7 , Samuel Hurt, Lancet, 1836-7 (1), p. 394, a child, æt. three and a half years, ate the berries. ( 8 to 13 , Dr Roth, Journ. de la Soc. Gall. Mat. Med. Pura, vol. 1, p. 501.)

8 , Gattereau, Ana. Journ. de Méd., vol. 81, p. 77; 9 , Harmand, ibid., vol. 83, p. 210; 10 , Percy, ibid., p. 226; 11 , Hubner, Lethale taxi Venenum, example, confirmation, Francofurt, 1805; 12 , Brande's Blumenbach Med. Biblioth., vol. 3, p. 634; 13 , Reddelin, Dissertatio de Tax. Baccata, Jenæ, 1794; 14 , Stapf, Archiv., 15 part 1, p. 187; 15 , Vogt, Pharmakodyn., 4th edition, vol. 2, p. 287, general effects of large doses; 16 , Jahn's Mat. Med., 3d edition, vol. 2, p. 1056, effects when given for suppressed menstruation; 17 , Fisher, ibid., effects; 18 , Dr. Mullan, Dub. Hosp. Gaz., May, 1845, p. 109 (Taylor on Poisons, 1845, p. 632), death of an insane man in fourteen hours after eating the leaves; 19 , James Taylor, M.D., Prov. Journ., 1848, p. 708, death of a girl, æt. five years, in four hours after eating the berries; 20 , John Lloyd, ibid., p. 662, death of a boy, æt. four years, in nineteen days after eating the berries and nuts.

21 to 26 , Chevalier, Duchesne, and Reynel, Journ. de la Soc. Gall., 1856 (Brit. Journ. of Hom., 14, 415); 21 , Harmand de Montgarni, a man, æt. forty years, drank an infusion of 1 ounce of bark in 1 pint of white wine for quartan fever; 22 , a woman passed a night under one of the trees; 23 , a girl bruised the branches and drank the juice; 24 , one man ate a dozen berries, another ate twice as many; 25 , Ray; 26 , same, a woman drank a decoction of the leaves; 27 , Schroff, A. H. Z. M. B., 1, 48, 1859, Drs. Heinrich and Billberger took the alcoholic extract of the leaves in three doses of 1/20th, 1/10th, and 1/5th drachms; 28 , Brit. Med. Journ., (Dublin Med. Press, new ser., 10, 1864, p. 476), a girl, æt. three years, ate the berries; 29 , James Thompson, Lancet, 1868 (2), p. 530, a boy, æt. three years, ate the berries, death in four hours; 30 , L'Imparziale of Florence (Pharm. Journ., 1870, p. 286), a girl took a decoction of the leaves every morning for three days, and an increased dose of 8 ounces on the fourth morning, death in eight hours; 31 , A. H. Newth, Med. Times and Gaz., 1870 (2), p. 446, death of a man from the berries; 32 , Drs. Ridder, Virchow, and Hirsch, Jahrsbericht, 1874, part 1, p. 489, poisoning of a girl of five months by the berries; 33 , P.M. Deas, Brit. Med. Journ., 1876 (2); p. 392, death of a woman, æt. forty-nine years, from the leaves; 34 , Prof. Redwood, Pharm. Journ., November 1877, p. 361, death of a woman who took five or six doses of a decoction of the leaves, and with the last dose some chopped unboiled leaves; , T. Whitehead Reid Brit. Med. Journ., September, 1877, p. 442, a woman, æt. twenty-four years, having gone supperless to bed, chewed and swallowed three large mouthfuls (three small sprigs), at 7 A.M., of "T. fastigiata" (the Irish variety of Taxus baccata).

Note.

-Cativolcus, rex dimidiæ partis Eburonum... taxo, cujus magna in Gallia Germaniaque copia est, se exanimavit. Cæsar. De bello Gallico. Liber VI, cap. 31.

MIND

Died delirious, 30.
Remained imbecile during two months that the skin was diseased (after one month), 21.
She was as if intoxicated for two days, 22.
Anxiety, 15.
Impatient disposition, which scarcely allows of the least intellectual contest (thirteenth day), 3.
Oppression only in the daytime, especially when the stomach is empty or full (first day), 4.
Disinclination to mental work, 27.
Fell on the bed she was making, 23.
Partial unconsciousness (after six hours), 33. [10.]
State of profound stupor and helplessness, 23.
There was very marked improvement after the stomach was washed out, though even then she was prone to relapse into her former lethargic condition, and necessity arose for more active measures to keep her awake, though these again were soon able to be discontinued (after seven hours and a half), 35.
The patient's memory was a blank form 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.; she did not even recollect the stomach-pump (after three hours), 35.
Insensible, 19.
Coma, 20, 29 ; (after six hours), 35.

HEAD

Vertigo.
Vertigo, 15, 16 , etc.
Momentary vertigo, 9.
Giddiness, 18.
General Head.
Dulness of the head, 15, 27.
Headache, 16, 17 ; (after fourteen hours and a half), 35. [20.]
The gardeners at Pisa could not remain more than half an hour at work trimming the trees without suffering violent headache, 25.
Slight headache with vertigo, 12.
Burning headache, 14.
Forehead.
Frontal headache, extending to the face, with tearing in the eyes and slight lachrymation (third day), 5.
Supraorbital and temporal headache on the right side, with lachrymation on the same side (after two hours and a half); aggravation at the slightest shaking from the cough (after five, six, seven to ten hours), 3.
Supraorbital headache, with appearance of brilliant revolving circles constantly before the left eye especially, together with a feeling of emptiness in the stomach at the approach of mealtime, mostly ceasing after eating, 4.
Fine sticking pain in the frontal region, 14.
Headache under the left orbit (after one hour and a half), with increased lachrymation some hours later, 4.
Temples.
Pressure in the left temporal region, 14.
Parietals.
Twinging headache in both sides, 14. [30.]
The pain in the head passed from the right to the left side in the same position and with the same characteristics (second day), 3.

EYE

Eyes shut, 33.
Orbit.
Pressive pain over the eyes, 13.
Pressive pain in the orbital region, 27.
Lids.
Eyelids fell, and turned of a very dark color, 7.
Appearance of a small dry scab with red base, with very acute itching in a space about three lines in diameter, towards the outer canthus of the left eye (after eight hours), 4.
Smarting itching in both eyelids, relieved by rubbing (after one hour); this symptom occurred with all the provers, without redness or signs of inflammation, 3.
Very troublesome itching in the left outer canthus (first day), 4.
Lachrymation.
Copious lachrymation on using the eyes in the least whether in the open air or indoors, 3.
Lachrymation of the left eye without pain (after one hour), 4.
Pupils. [40.]
Pupils very dilated, 19.
Pupils widely dilated, though they acted slightly to light (after six hours), 35.
Dilated pupils, 7, 20, 29.
Vision.
Obscurity of vision, 23.

FACE

Looked ill, 7.
Face puffy and pale, 1.
Countenance pale, 19, 33.
Countenance pale and depressed, 20.
Pallor of face; lividity of lips and eyelids (after six hours), 35.
Facial muscles convulsed, chiefly on the left side, the head itself being drawn to that side; the eyes were thrown up and the pupils contracted; the arms were also drawn up and there was great restlessness; the facial convulsions were similar to those in an epileptic fit, and ended in a few minutes in frothing at the mouth and stertorous breathing, 33. [50.]
Purplish lips, 7.
Lips, especially the upper, blackish brown, 1.

MOUTH

Teeth.
Coldness in the upper incisors, 14.
Tongue.
Tongue coated, 27.
Tongue excoriated, 20.
Tongue moist and tremulous, stained of a uniform brown color (after six hours); the staining lasted four days, 35.
Biting heat of the tongue at the part in contact with the substance (immediately), 3.
General Mouth.
Dry mouth with the fever (after twenty-four hours, 5.
Saliva.
Secretion of saliva increased, and afterwards, especially from large doses, diminished, 27.
Increased secretion of saliva, he spits a great deal more than usual, and the saliva is extremely viscid, 8. [60.]
Thick saliva, salter than usual, 9.
Saliva sometimes so acrid as to make the mouth smart, 9.
Copious secretion of hot saliva, with the sickness at the stomach (third day), 5.
Taste.
Bitter taste like that of Quinine, but much less persistent (first day), 4.

STOMACH

Appetite.
Two hours after breakfast unwonted hunger, which, when satisfied, returns in an hour and a half (after five hours); this symptom, accompanied by general weakness and by uneasiness, with great weakness of sinking feeling in the region of the stomach, was especially troublesome during the two last days, 3.
Loss of appetite.
Thirst.
Intense thirst (after eleven hours), 35.
Nausea and Vomiting.
Nausea, followed sometimes by mucous and saburral vomiting, rarely mingled with bile, 9.
Nausea and efforts to vomit, 27.
Retching, and complained of feeling ill, 34. [70.]
Sickness at the stomach, with copious secretion of hot saliva (third day), 5.
Began to feel sick (after one hour); vomited for the first time (after one hour and a half); vomited three or four times between 9 and 10 A.M., (after two hours); vomiting from time to time (after six hours); 9.30 P.M. the vomited matter had become duodenal in character, being more tenacious, and containing bile and food as well as leaves, the sharp points of which were well imbedded in mucus; she had vomited four times since 6 P.M. (after fourteenth hours and a half); the vomited matter was neutral to test-paper, 35.
Vomiting, 7, 18 , etc.
The oldest vomited a little, 2.
Vomiting, which ended in death, 26.
Vomiting, purging, and tenesmus, 13.
Vomiting of mucus and of curdled grease, 11.
Stomach.
Greater activity of the digestive functions, and, in consequence, frequent need of eating, 4.
Feeling of emptiness in the stomach without hunger (after about an hour, second day), 4.
Pain in epigastrium, 31. [80.]
Pain in the pit of the stomach felt only on pressure (but that pressure the very slightest), which increases the oppression and excites a little short cough without expectoration (second day), 4.
Very distressing dull sensation in the stomach and abdomen, lasting several hours, with rumbling, .

ABDOMEN

Borborygmi when fasting, and sometimes rumblings rising from the hypogastrium to the umbilicus (thirteenth day), 3.
Slight dull pain in the umbilicus (after one hour and a half), 4.
Pressure above the umbilicus, 14.
Uncomfortable distension as from eating too much, 14.
Rumbling in the abdomen, with dull pain, followed by an evacuation quite unusual at this hour (after half an hour, second day), 4.
Twinging and tension across the abdomen, 14.
Gripings in the belly of the oldest, 2.

STOOL. [90.]

Purging, 20.
Diarrhœa, which is usually rather small in quantity, and often accompanied with tenesmus, 9.
Slight diarrhœa without colic (from eating the berries of the yew), 10.
Looseness of the bowels, with tenesmus and insupportable smarting, during, and after each stool or attempt at one (thirteenth day), 3.
Slight purging, 8, 24.
Increased stools, 15.
Two stools (first day), 21.
Soft stool at a very unaccustomed hour (after a quarter of an hour), 4.
Soft stool (after half an hour), 6.
Stools partly pasty, partly liquid, usually painful, 27. [100.]
Natural stool, but at a very unaccustomed hour (after four hours), 2.
Hard and scanty stools all the time the remedy was acting (after eight hours), 4.
Hard difficult evacuation, 14.

URINARY ORGANS

Cutting pain at the base of the kidneys, which allows him neither to sit still nor stand up, and even prevents him from turning himself in bed; it lasted thus two days, ceasing by degrees in about five days (after one hour), 6.
In the evening, and especially the next day, tenesmus of the bladder, with slightly smarting pain in the line of the frænum, in the urethra (second day), 3.
Frequent urging to urinate, the urine being emitted with difficulty in very feeble jets, though natural in color (fifteenth day), 3.
Difficult urination, frequently alternating with limpid urine, 9.
Great increase of urine, 15.
Increases secretion of urine, with increased desire to urinate, 27.
Strangury, urine red, 17. [110.]
She held her urine all day and until 6 the next morning; the urine, which measured 4 pints in the twenty-four hours on the fourth day, varied in specific gravity from 1011 to 1017, contained uric acid in abundance, with large crystals resembling cystin in appearance, as well as lozenge and halbert-shaped ones of all sizes; there were variable amounts of albumen and phosphates during the eight days it was examined, 35.

SEXUAL ORGANS

Increased discharge from the genitals, 15.
Extreme excitement during an embrace, without stronger desire or any repetition of the act (fifteenth day), 3.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

Cough excited by a deep respiration, with slight oppression, soon after dinner (after ten hours), 3.
Violent fatiguing cough, 14.
Increased expectoration from the bronchi, 15.
Respiration frequent, 20.
Breathing very hard, 34.
Breathing laborious and frequent, 19.
Breathing difficult, 29. [120.]
Respirations shallow, irregular, often sighing (after six hours), 35.

CHEST

Lungs engorged, 20.
Increased oppression and cough, which is accompanied at first by a pain under the xiphoid cartilage, aggravated by the least pressure on the latter; this symptom was never felt at all during the night, nor when there was any expectoration with the cough; it was more painful both before and after a meal (second day), 2.
Chest full and hot, 1.
Stitches in the left side, 14.

HEART AND PULSE

Irregular action of the heart, 16.
Rapid pulse, 16.
Pulse at first increased in frequency, afterwards sank below the normal; after three or four hours rose somewhat above the normal, 27.
Slow pulse, 32.
Pulse feeble, 19. [130.]
Pulse small and wiry, 20.
Pulse almost imperceptible, 33.
Very marked irregularity and depression of the heart's action with a small thready pulse, at times imperceptible, at times frequent, of short duration, small volume, and diminished power; the heart's action was very feeble and undulating, its sounds indistinct, yet the ventricular systole not interrupted enough to cause a dicrotous pulse (after six hours); pulse regular as to rhythm, though not to frequency, beats varying between 80 and 96 (after fourteen hours and a half), 35.
The pulse remained very irregular in frequency (accompanied by sensations of "heart-stopping") for three days, varying between 55 and 92; its rise was quick and volume diminished, 35.

NECK AND BACK

Drawing in the left cervical muscles, 14.
Pain which is neither continuous nor severe, in the upper part of the back (soon); pain increased (second day), 5.
Pain under the left scapula (immediately), 4.
The pain under the scapula passes behind the kidneys (after one hour), 4.
Cutting pain in the sacral region, which obliged him to support the kidneys, when walking (thirteenth day), 3.

EXTREMITIES

Numbness of the limbs and paralysis, 15. [140.]
A numbness, with a kind of immobility, in the extremities, especially after several sweats, 9.
Pretty sharp, transient, wandering pains in the extremities, 9.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

Pain during exercise as well as rest, but more severe during exercise, seeming to occupy the olecranon process, and sometimes to leave this part for other portions of the same bone, always in the direction of its humeral extremity; this pain, although not very deepseated, evidently affects the bone, and seems to occupy the periosteum (first day), 4.
Pain felt both on movement and during rest, but worse on movement, appearing to occupy the olecranon process, and sometimes to leave this part of the elbow for other portions of the same bone, always tending, towards its humeral extremity; this pain, although not very deepseated, evidently affects the bone, and seems to occupy the periosteum, 8.
Unpleasant dryness of the palms, which are also very warm (fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth days), 3.
Immediately, or in a few minutes, pain in the joint of the first and second phalanges of the left middle finger (second day), 4.
Dull pains in the phalangeal joints of the right hand (second day), 3.
Rheumatic pain in the right forefinger, in the phalangeal articulations (third day); this pain lasted until the eighth day, not continuously, but returning often, and especially when the affected part was brought into the slightest contact with even warm liquid, 3.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

Hip.
Pain in the left hip, with internal feeling of heat, and, externally, of tearing and great coldness (fourteenth and fifteenth days), 3.
Moderate and superficial pain in the right hip and in the knee of the same side, felt more deeply, but not more severely, in the thigh, as a tearing, with coldness; it ceased in the night (after seven hours), 3.
Knee. [150.]
Pain of the same nature as at the base of the kidneys, but more violent, in both knees, especially in the left, ceasing at night, and passing then into the ankle-joint, 4.
Pain about the right knee-pan (after one hour); pain in the left knee like that in the right, where it had ceased (after two hours and a half); these symptoms reappeared with an intensity which even disabled me from walking, the pain in the knee returning by starts, and impressing on the joint a feeling of extreme weakness, and sometimes of being suddenly bruised, with a cutting pain, which rendered locomotion quite impossible (thirteenth day), 3.
Crawling sensation in the right leg, extending to the sole of the foot, where it felt as though one were walking on a net, 14.
Sharp pinching, with circumscribed itching, in the middle of the left calf (after nine hours), 3.
Sudden shooting, almost as quick as lightning, close to and almost upon the phalangeal joint of the first metatarsus of the right side (first day), 4.
Crawling sensation in the whole left foot, 14.

GENERALITIES

All the hairy parts became denuded (after a month), 31.
Secretions increased, 15.
Twice a slight tremor came over her frame (after six hours), 35.
Trembling, as at the approach of a fever, with dry mouth, without thirst, and general uneasiness, all of which lasts a quarter of an hour (after twenty-four hours), 5. [160.]
Convulsions, 18, 19, 26, 29.
Convulsions and death, 7.
Great uneasiness, 23.
Restless at times, turning from side to side, in bed (after six hours), 35.
Restlessness, 15.
Unsteadiness when at rest or sitting, and especially when standing quietly (thirteenth day), 3.
General feeling of uneasiness (thirteenth day), 3.
Uneasy (after two hours), 2.
Extreme exhaustion, 1.
Great prostration, 27. [170.]
Prostration and distension of the abdomen, 32.
Sudden prostration of strength, 128.
Prostration, with great oppression, after an embrace, the whole without pain or anxiety; this symptom, the last produced, after having resisted several attempts to remove it, yielded completely to the exhibition of Staphisagria, taken with this object (sixteenth day), 3.
Faintness, 33.
A kind of faintness, soon; a small quantity of brandy and other restoratives seemed to recover her, and she was then put to bed, a dose of castor oil being administered; she, however, relapsed into her former alarming state and death ensued, 28.
Fainted, became insensible, and was found on the floor in a state of collapse (after two hours), 35.
Symptoms of syncope (after six hours), 35.

SKIN

Two attacks of black jaundice very difficult to remove, 21.
The hue of the skin remains of a dirty leaden gray, 21.
Redness of the skin, 15. [180.]
Eruption of large and slightly prominent pimples, rather like plates, of a vivid red color, occupying the posterior and upper portions of both arms, with very acute itching (after one hour); eruption increased (second day), 5.
Body covered with pustules (after a month), 21.
When she awoke, next morning, her body was covered with a copious miliary eruption, on the third day the rash disappeared, and there was an abscess formed at the right knee, which broke on the eleventh day, and was followed by death on the fourteenth, 22.
The day following the first dose, and a few hours after the second, uneasiness towards the nose, on whose tip there appeared a large, round, and brownish-red spot, without pain or itching, only sensitive to pressure towards its centre, slightly prominent by reason of a small pimple which projected at this point, where next day, without pain or irritation, desquamation began, which by slow degrees, extended over all the violet-covered surface, and was completed in five or six days; finally, towards the evening of this same day, that is, about twelve hours after the second dose taken in infusion, a burning itching was felt in the inferior dorsal region of the right forearm, over a surface about an inch in diameter, and corresponding precisely to the outer part of the radio-carpal joint. This surface was rather redder and rougher than in the normal state, and the itching, of which it was the seat, alternated with a similar irritation, but much less severe, in the same portion of the left forearm. The next morning, in the same region, appeared on the right side a crowded mass of hard, round, and red pimples, whose branlike desquamation proceeded during next day and the day after, accompanied by very acute itching, while around this surface, where the skin had resumed its normal appearance and vitality, other similar pimples, but less numerous, arose and disappeared in like manner, with very acute itching, in the morning especially, and not at night, and were succeeded, in their turn, by another circle of similar pimples, reaching thus the dorsal region principally and the upper part of the right forearm. On the left side, three pimples of the same nature as the preceding, but whose desquamation was not followed by the production of other pimples, sufficed to keep up in this part for more than fifteen days, the itching of which it was the seat. To-day, even after lasting a month, the eruption on the right side still remains as troublesome as ever, 6.
A large suggilation in the sole of the left foot, with pain on walking, followed by dark petechiæ over nearly the whole body; the face became puffy and pale, the chest full and hot, with great weakness, and after a few days, fever, with great swelling of the face and lips, which became blackish-brown, especially the upper lip, with extreme exhaustion, followed by death, .

SLEEP

Yawning without sleepiness, 14.
Yawned much (after two hours), 2.
Drowsiness for some hours, 9.
Seemed as if going to sleep, 7.
Deep sleep, 13. [190.]
Complete insomnia (thirteenth day), 3.
Sleep restless, 27.

FEVER

Chilliness.
General coldness for some minutes, at 2 A.M., followed by dry heat in the hands, and especially in the feet, with general malaise; dry mouth without thirst, and then copious sweat on the forehead, which, in three hours, ended the symptoms (after twenty-one hours), 6.
Chilly and listless (after two hours), 2.
Coldness of the surface, 18, 19.
Skin cold and clammy, 29.
Skin cold and bathed in perspiration (after six hours), 35.
Shivering over the whole body, 27.
Extremities cold, 20.
Unpleasant coldness of the skin of the thighs, especially in front, all day (fifteenth day), 2. [200.]
Temperature 98.3° (after fourteen hours and a half); never exceeded 99.9° for three days, 35.
Heat.
Fever, 1, 15.
Dry heat with thirst, 13.
Heat in the forehead, 14.
Sweat.
Offensive viscid sweats, with smart itching and redness in the glandular parts at the surface of the body, 9.
Perspiration of a peculiarly offensive odor, with itching of the skin and eruption of vesicles, 15.
Sweating after the least exercise, with great weakness (thirteenth day), 3.
Profuse nightsweats, 14.

CONDITIONS

Aggravation.
( Before and after each meal ), Oppression and cough.
( Pressure ), Pain in pit of stomach.
( Pressure on xiphoid cartilage ), Oppression and cough.
( Deep respiration ), Cough.
( Shaking from cough ), Headache.
( When standing quietly ), Unsteadiness.
( Warm liquids ), Pain in right forefinger.
Amelioration.
( Rubbing ), Itching of eyelids.

Taxus Baccata