Mezereum

(DAPHNE MEZEREUM, SPURGE-OLIVE. NAT. ORDER, THTMELACEiE. )

This bark comes from a shrub, the stem of which is bushy, from four to five feet high ; the leaves are smooth, about two inches long ; the flowers are of a beautiful, crimson-color ; the berries when ripe, are scarlet. The mezereum is one of our earliest flowering shrubs, and one of the greatest ornaments to our gardens in the months of February and March. Cowper sings of it :

" Though leafless, well attired and thick beset With blushing wreaths, investing every spray."

The flowers are very sweet-scented, and where there are many together, they will perfume the air to a considerable distance.

This bush is a native of Europe, Northern Asia, and America.

"We use the bark ; it is taken from the plant before the leaves and flowers appear. The bark is tough, pliable, fibrous ; externally it is brown and corrugated ; internally white and cottony ; its taste is first sweetish, afterward highly acrid; odorless. In Germany, the bark of the stem and larger branches is removed in spring, folded in small bundles, and dried for medicinal purposes. Of this bark we prepare a tincture having a yellowish-brown color.

All the parts of this plant are very acrid, and act as an irritant and cathartic. In large doses it is an irritant poison, causing red- ness and vesication of the skin when left some time in contact with it, and exciting, when swallowed, dryness and burning in the throat, vomiting, hyper-catharsis, and occasionally symptoms of irritation of the kidney.

Linnaeus, in his Swedish Flora, reports that a young lady, labor-

426 MEZEEEUM.

ing under intermittent fever, died from haemoptysis in consequence of having taken twelve berries of the daphne mezereum, which had been given with the intention of purging her; and Vicat, in his history of the poisonous plants of Switzerland, states, that a dropsical patient was suddenly attacked with diarrhoea, which was continual, and was accompanied with insupportable pains. He had besides, for six weeks, vomitings which returned every day with extreme violence, although, during the whole time, proper remedies were employed to quiet them.

Mr. Blatin also narrates the case of a person who took a decoction of the root of mezereum, instead of marsh-mallow. It occasioned violent pains in the stomach and intestines, accompanied by a sting- ing, burning sensation in the skin, restlessness, loss of appetite, intense fever, and irregular action of the tendons.

Hahnemann relates the following case of poisoning with meze- reum in his Lesser Writings: "An otherwise robust man took mezereum internally for some complaints that he had. But as he continued the use of this drug, even after the disappearance of these complaints, he became affected with intolerable itching over the whole body, which did not allow him an hour's sleep. He discon- tinued the medicine, came to me thirty-six hours afterward, and assured me that he could no longer endure the itching which increased every hour. I gave him thirty-six grains of camphor to be taken in six doses, one every six hours ; before he had taken it all the itching had disappeared."

Frauk relates the following case of poisoning : A robust farmer who was afflicted with haemorrhoids, swallowed forty ripe berries of mezereum to remove a most obstinate constipation. Next morning the doctor found the patient quite exhausted, in violent pain, with vertigo, embarrassed feeling in the head, pale, cold and sunken countenance, dilated pupils, unquenchable thirst, violent burning in the mouth, fauces, oesophagus and stomach which was exceedingly painful to the least touch; so was the abdomen. During the night, he had vomited unceasingly, and had had continual, painful dis- charges from the bowels, which finally changed to discharges of blood and mucus ; his voice was feeble, altered, trembling ; breath- ing oppressed, labored and short; copious sweat, with coldness of the extremities ; the urine was acrid and of the color of red blood : the pulse was very frequent, unequal^ hard and tense ; he did not recognize those near him.

A girl of fourteen years rubbed the leaves of mezereum upon her cheeks and the adjoining parts ; the consequences of this proceeding were: burning pains and swelling of the face, more particularly of the nose, eyelids and fore part of the head, speedily terminating in the formation of confluent blisters; continual, violent "and painful sneezing; complete closing of the nostrils, delirium ; dull, intolerably

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pressing pains in the forehead, disagreeable dryness in the fauces, and au irritation causing a dry, fatiguing cough ; feverish pulse ; burning and red urine.

The burning was speedily relieved by emollient and oleaginous applications, and the epidermis peeled off. Since then, the girl became debilitated, low-spirited and listless to such an extent that she almost seemed imbecile. A few weeks after this occurrence, she was attacked with typhoid fever which lasted twelve weeks ; she remained quite feeble, and finally died with hectic fever.

Guided by these effects, we may employ mezereum in the follow- ing affections :

GASTRO-ENTERITIS, if the symptoms resemble the effects described in the above-mentioned case of poisoning ; such an attack of gastro-enteritis may arise as a form of metastatic gout, or arthritic rheumatism of the stomach and bowels. A distinguishing- indication for mezereum would be a furious stinging and itching of the skin, burning urine with frequent urging.

ANGINA PAUOIUM, dryness and burning of the throat, with soreness ; likewise a form of arthritic or neuralgic-rheumatic inflam- mation. In mercurial angina mezereum may prove a useful remedy.

SUBSULTUS TENDINUM; as a peculiar form of chorea, more especially wheu resulting from, or complicated with, the mercurial or syphilitic miasm, may find a remedy in mezereum. For

ITCHING LEUCORRHCEA, this drug is recommended by Hahn- emann ; it causes an inflammatory irritation of the lining membrane of the urinary and genital organs.

ITCHING ERUPTIONS, sores, eczematous and herpetic erup- tions, tinea capitis.

An old gentleman of seventy-four years, in whom the symptoms of marasmus senilis are well marked, has, in consequence, a folded and wrinkled skin, and in the evening and night an itching, so violent as to rob him of sleep, causing him to be weak and dyspeptic. He had been treated by various celebrated medical men and received, at last, hypodermic injections of morphine. Its effects were so depressing that he concluded to try homoeopathy. I saw the patient on Sept. 9, 1870, two days after the morphine injection had been employed.

He spoke so untruthfully and so indistinctly that his wife had to act as interpreter. His memory was so defective, that he had forgotten names and the chronological order of events. His face was pale and had the expression of an apopletic whose mental functions were blunted ; his face was stolid; his eyes rambling or fixed on one object for a long time. These and other symptoms were the result or morphine.

But the itching was important and the patient and his friends were anxious that it should be cured. The skin, which on the back, neck, breast, arms and thighs was tolerably plump, was not only atrophied, but more or less folded and wrinkled on the front of the neck, abdomen,, forearms, legs and face. On these parts the veins were dilated and rigid, and the temperature diminished. During the day the itching was tolerable, but beginning at the evening twilight it became every hour more violent and intolerable.

The patient could not refrain from scratching; he felt as if a million insects were crawl-

428 MEZEREtJM.

ing on him ; sometimes he rubbed his arms, sometimes his leg's or abdomen or neck, as I have seen in morbus pedicularis. On the parts which he scratched, we could see no bloody streaks or scaling off, but an innumerable number of large or small wheals, i. e., isolated white elevations on a red or reddish ground as in nettle-rash, which by continued scratching showed in the middle of each a drop of blood as large as a pin-head. The scratching caused also a burning as if live coals lay on the affected parts.

In the night, the itching was less violent, but the burning con- tinued until the break of day, when exhausted by the torments of the night he fell into several hours' refreshing sleep. Morphine gave him no rest whatever. During the day examination showed no morbid alterations. The small drops in the center only showing as brown specks on the surface of the skin.

One important symptom was: the patient felt during the most violent itching and during the persistent burn- ing a constant shuddering and an unpleasant feeling of cold along the spinal column and in the extremities, which compelled him to go to bed in the first hours of the evening, so that he might get warmed more easily and quickly. As already men- tioned, he felt on most of the itching spots a diminution of the normal temperature. Bordeaux wine and strong coffee were used to antidote the effects of the morphine.

For the itching I gave mezereum*, two doses a day, and I had the satisfaction to learn after three days that the itching and burning had abated, and that his sleep was better and longer. As the improvement continued, and the appetite and strength increased, I gave but one dose a day. The cure was complete in four weeks. (Dr.

Kafka, in Allgemeine Horn. Zeitmtg.)

PERIOSTITIS, syphilitico-mercurial, also when engrafted upon a scrofulous basis.

CARIES OF BONES, resulting from simililar causes.

EXOSTOSIS, and osseous elargements, have been removed by mezereum, when of a syphilitic character. Hufelaud recommends it very highly for such affections ; he^states that it has effected cures in cases where mercury proved entirely inadequate. A patient who had been afflicted for a long time with the most distressing bone- pains of the skull, was very speedily cured by a decoction of two drachms of the bark of mezereum. In several places the skull bones had become enlarged, and there was reason to suspect the presence of extravasation or an exostosis pressing upon the brain.

Mezereum has also been used in

PROSOPALGIA. — Pain in zygoma and temple, right side ; boring in the upper maxilla and in carious teeth, with frequent, trouble- some muscular twitchings of the right cheek ; prosopalgia on the left side from eye to eyeball, cheek, teeth, neck and shoulder ; lach- rymation ; conjunctiva injected ; parts sensitive to touch ; neuralgic pains come quickly and leave the parts numb, worse from warmth ; facial muscles drawn tense ; flow of saliva; redness of fauces; burn- ing in the throat; red spots on the nape of the neck; formication in the skin of the chest; constant chilliness; after the abuse of mercury, especially for syphilitic, scrofulous and herpetic persons. (Lilienthal's Therapeutics.)

Mr. , aged twenty-eight years; has very violent neuralgic pains in the left in- ferior maxillary bone; the character of the pain is boring, extending to the temple

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and ear, worse at night, and relieved by firm pressure. This patient has been suffer- ing intensely for three days. Two doses of mezereum, 3d dilution, relieved entirely iii less than two hours. (Dr. S. R. Geiser, Cin. Med. Advance, February, 1879.)

Mrs. M., aged forty-two years, nervous temperament, has suffered for a week from double neuralgia. It begins with an occipital pain, drawing, hammering, interrupted by stitches through the whole brain ; from there it spreads to the vertex, forehead and temples, with tenderness of the scalp, and accompanied by stupefaction and heat. After a little while, a burning and boring pain sets in, in the superciliary arch, spreads over the eye to the cheeks and teeth, and down to the left shoulder.

Lachrymations, redness of the conjunctiva, and sensitiveness of the affected parts to the touch, accompany the pains. She also complains of dryness of the throat, slight difficulty of swallowing, continual chilliness even in bed, loss of memory and great malaise. Exacerbations come on in the evening and continue until midnight. Amelioration by covering the head, and perfect quiet in a dark room.

She has suf- fered for years from megrim, with cold extremities; the nails are blue, and there is a hot sensation on a small spot on the top of the head. Prescribed mezereum', five pellets three times a day. In three days she was entirely freed from the prosopalgia. (Dr.

Payr, Am. Jour, of Horn. Mat. Med., August, 1869.)

Mezereum also causes certain important ear-symptoms, such as : sensation as though air were extending the right external meatus, afterward the left ; ringing in the ears and swelling of the parotid glands, with shooting pains in the submaxillary glands; stopped-up feeling; tension behind the ears, with tearing, in periodical jerks. Biting, itching eruptions behind the ear.

Taking into consideration the fact that mezereum causes severe bone-pains and affects also the cutaneous and mucous tissues, as already denned, use has been made of this remedy in the treatment of affections of the inner ear, among which special mention must be made of

DYSEOOIA, depending upon ulceration of the inner ear, and presenting the symptoms just given. A syphilitic history of the case still further confirms the homoeopathicity of the drug. Sup- pression of eruption on head or behind the ears.

G. W., aged seventeen, small, but well made; healthy since nine years old, with the exception of hardness of hearing, dating from his fourth year. When three years old he had an extensive eruption on the head, which was removed by pitch- plasters. The sore places were burnt with lunar caustic, whereby the eruption. was removed, but since then, the child's hearing has been impaired.

The ticking of a loud watch he can only hear at a distance of three and a half inches. Ear wax normal, so also the conducting of sound .through the teeth. Membrana tympani thickened, Eustachian tubes free. According to his mother's account, the child's head was covered with an eruption consisting of whitish, hard, almost horny scabs or scales; between these were fissures from which, when pressure was applied, a thick, yellow, fetid pus exuded.

At night, the itching was so great that the child scratched off the scabs. Greatly improved and eventually cured by mezereum.

Mezereum has also been used advantageously in the treatment of

APHONIA, especially in women, in the latter stages of phthisis

and in persons of syphilitic taint, also in chronic laryngitis. "Quite

often aphonia develops in the advanced stages of phthisis, the

430 MILLEFOLIUM.

patients can only whisper, and can speak loud, in abrupt sentences, only by making a great exertion, or even not then ; the voice does not seem to be under their control. There are lancinating pains in the upper larynx and at the root of the tongue ; if the tongue is depressed, little ulcers are frequently observed. These extend gradu- ally, especially forward, along the edges of the tongue, cover the tongue, inner cheek and lips, but seem to avoid the gums, causing burning, stitching, dryness of the mouth and impeding the move- ments of the tongue. They hardly ever reach the size of a lentil, remain rather round and are covered with a dirty pus, without inflammation of the surrounding tissues ; mezereum will cure." (Hofrichter.)

H., aged forty years, has had syphilis, has suffered for years from a throat trouble, receiving no relief from alloeopafhic treatment. Symptoms : Better in the summer, during the fall he must remain in the house, and is sickly all through the winter. Dark redness of the mucous membrane of the throat, dryness and burning in the throat, oesophagus and head of the trachea, extending downward into the chest, worse after eating. The voice is hoarse and rough, he speaks with an effort and loses its use entirely when talking any length of time.

Inspiration of cold air causes pain in the gums, but relieves the burning. Much expectoration of mucus. Exter- nal hsemorrhoids, with stitching pains in them. Flaccid state of the abdomen; rarely scalding when urinating.

Prescribed one dose each day of mezereum3. Cured in three weeks. (Hofrichter in Allg. Horn.

Zeitg., xxxv., p. 138.)

ANTIDOTAL TREATMENT.— Acetic acid, camphor, mucila- ginous drinks, milk, etc.