"Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and _Slips of Yew_."
The Yew tree is called "Hebon" by Spencer, and "Jew of Malta" by
other writers of Shakespeare's time. The leaves are bitter, nauseous,
and acrid. The succulent covering of the fruit is soft and slimy,
mawkishly sweet, and mucilaginous. The leaves have a dangerous
effect on the circulation of the heart, and when taken with any
freedom are as fatal as the Foxglove.
Before the new Shakespeare Society, 1882, it was contended and
proved to the satisfaction of the Society, that "the cursed Hebena,"
the "leperous distilment poured into the chambers of mine ears,"
told of, so pathetically, by the sad ghost of Hamlet's father, was the
[622] poison of the Yew, and identical with Marlow[e]'s juice of
Hebron.
Ray mentions that a gardener employed in clipping a Yew tree at
Pisa, could not proceed with his work for more than half-an-hour at
a time without being seized with a violent pain in the head.
Nevertheless, deer, sheep, and goats can eat the foliage with
impunity.
The fresh leaves were administered to three children near
Manchester for worms. Yawning and listlessness came on, and the
eldest vomited a little, but neither of them complained of any pain.
They all died within a few hours of each other.
Because being then green, on the Sunday next before Easter, the
branches of the Yew tree have been used as a substitute for the
Palms which symbolise the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
The symptoms induced by provings of the leaves and juice in toxic
quantities, have been sick headache, with giddiness, feeble, faltering
pulse, coldness of the extremities, diarrhoea, and general
prostration. So that for this combination of symptoms, as in severe
biliousness, or as in the auditory vertigo of Meniere's disease, small
doses of the diluted tincture are found to give prompt and effectual
relief. The leaves contain a volatile oil, tannin, and a bitter
principle "taxina," which is also furnished by the seeds. An extract
of Yew has been pronounced a useful narcotic by more than one physician
of repute: and in some parts of Germany a decoction of the wood is
a well-known remedy against hydrophobia.
A jelly prepared from the berries has been given for chronic
bronchitis, and the leaves have been used for epilepsy; likewise they
have been taken by ignorant persons to induce abortion, but with
serious injury to the experimenter. In some rural districts the berries
[623] are known as "Snots"; whilst the wood and roots are "Wire
thorn."
By an old statute of Edward the First, trees were required to be
placed in churchyards to defend the church from high winds, the
clergy being allowed to cut them down for repairing the chancel
when necessary. Perhaps, partly for this reason, the Yew was
commonly planted by the side of a newly-built church. That its
wood was certainly employed for making bows, we learn from
Shakespeare:--
"Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal Yew against thy state."
It was "double-fatal," because the leaves and fruit seeds are
poisonous, and the bows made from its branches, as well as arrows
armed with its deadly juice, were instruments of death.
Against the maladies which have been specified as indicating the
tincture of Yew for their cure, from five to ten drops of the third
decimal tincture should be given, with a spoonful of water, every
two, three, or four hours, whilst required. In Switzerland the Yew is
known as William's tree, in memory of Tell. Formerly the name was
spelt "Eugh," "Yeugh," and "Ewgh."