SECT. XLVIII.—ON THE SMILAX OR YEW.
The tree called smilax is named thymium by some, and taxus by the Romans. When drunk it brings on coldness of the whole body, suffocation, and speedy death; the remedies for which are all those things which are given to those who have drunk of hemlock.
Commentary. The description of the symptoms and the plan of treatment are borrowed from Nicander, or, rather, copied direct from Dioscorides.
Different opinions have been entertained respecting the poisonous nature of the yew. Haller, Bulliard, and others, deny that it is poisonous; while Berkley, Ray, Matthiolus, and others, affirm that it is. Orfila holds it to be a narcotic poison (chap. iv, cl. 4.) We have known instances of its proving fatal to cattle. The newspapers lately contained a melancholy case of a boy poisoned by yew-berries at Winchester. Matthiolus is not pleased with Dioscorides for making it to be a frigorific medicine; but Orfila, it appears, gives it the same character; that is to say, he holds it to be narcotic. Virgil alludes to its poisonous qualities:
Sic tua Cyrnæas fugiant examina taxos.
See, also, Theophrastus (H. P. i, 5, and iii, 9); and Schulze (Tox. vet. 17).