• Skin and mucous membranes – vesicles, ulcers, eruptions with crusts
• Bones, especially facial bones and tibia – deep-seated, boring, night pains
• Glands and periosteum
• Mouth and gums – ulcers, toothache
• Scalp – thick crusts with ichorous discharge
• Nervous system – twitching, restlessness, neuralgia

• Open air (despite chilliness)
• Warmth of bed (only in neuralgia or scalp eruption)
• Eating (especially facial bone pain or toothache)
• Discharges beginning (e.g. eruption or menses)
• Gentle motion (sometimes relieves restlessness)

• Cold air or exposure
• Damp weather
• Night, especially after midnight
• Suppressed eruptions or discharges
• Touch, pressure
• Emotions or fright
• Fatty foods or milk

Mezereum is marked by mental irritability, dread, and emotional hypersensitivity. There is a profound anxiety with fear of being alone, often linked to suppressed eruptions or chronic discharges. A sense of doom may linger, especially in patients with destructive skin or bone conditions. Hahnemann recorded mental dullness alternating with restlessness and mental confusion. Patients may also exhibit fixed ideas, such as a belief that they are double, or disconnected from their surroundings. [Hering] notes melancholia with despair and a tendency toward morbid thoughts, especially in chronic neuralgia or facial pain.

Scalp intensely sensitive, covered in thick, leathery crusts that ooze offensive, glutinous, purulent fluid. Beneath the crusts, the hair is matted and falls out easily. Burning, itching, and crawling sensations, worse from scratching, which only leads to rawness and ulceration. Headache deep in the bones, particularly in the forehead and zygoma, often described as boring or splitting, worse at night and in damp weather. Vertigo on moving or rising, often with nausea.

Photophobia, burning, and inflammation with vesicular eruptions on the lids. Eyelids red, thickened, and stuck together in the morning. Lachrymation acrid. Pain deep in the orbits, extending into the head. Vision may be obscured by dryness or neuralgic disturbance. In cases of suppressed skin eruptions, eye symptoms intensify.

Itching and burning within the ears, with dry, scaly eruptions behind or around them. Sensitive to wind and cold air. Tinnitus or humming in the ears. Ulceration and discharge in chronic cases. Pains shoot from ears to jaw or throat. External ear hot and swollen.

Coryza with scabs and crusts forming inside the nostrils. Ulceration and fissuring of the nasal septum. Offensive discharge, often bloody or green. Sensation of rawness, soreness, or heat in nasal passages. [Allen] notes neuralgic pain at the root of the nose.

One of Mezereum’s key spheres. Severe facial neuralgia, often involving the zygomatic bones and jaw, worse at night, aggravated by touch or cold. The pains are shooting, boring, or burning, sometimes extending to the eyes or neck. Face pale and sunken in chronic cases; in acute neuralgia, flushed and anxious. Skin of face may have small ulcers, crusts, or eczema-like eruptions.

Mouth and tongue ulcerated, dry, or coated white. Tongue may feel burnt or scalded. Pains shoot from teeth into ears or temples. Offensive breath. Excessive salivation, especially in cases of ulcerated gums. Speech becomes thick or indistinct due to tongue stiffness or soreness.

Violent toothache, particularly at night, aggravated by cold air, touch, or even the thought of eating. Pain radiates from teeth into ear or head. Gums spongy, swollen, bleed easily. Teeth feel too long or loose. Often indicated when pain is relieved while eating or holding cold water in the mouth—unusual modality.

Dryness, burning, and rawness in throat, with constant desire to swallow. Aphthous ulcers may be present. Swallowing may cause radiating pain to the ears or jaw. Worse at night or when cold air strikes the throat. Sensation of a lump or obstruction. Diphtheritic affections with ulceration and foul breath may be treated with Mezereum in certain constitutions.

Aversion to meat, fat, and warm food. Desire for cold food, though often poorly tolerated. Nausea worse in the morning or after fatty food. Burning in stomach with weight and pressure. Vomiting sour or bilious material. Gnawing hunger with aversion to food—a contradictory state reflecting inner inflammation.

Soreness and distension of the abdomen with dull pains. Flatulence, worse from milk or fruit. Painful pressure in hypochondria. Cramping pains before or during stool. Abdominal glands may be swollen or sensitive in children with skin conditions.

Scanty, dark urine with strong smell. Burning during urination. Frequent urging, worse at night. Thick sediment. Involuntary urination in children with suppressed eruptions. Micturition painful or spasmodic.

Tenesmus with burning after stool. Diarrhoea with offensive, corrosive, and watery discharge. Constipation alternating with soft, incomplete stool. Itching or burning in anus, especially after eating. In chronic cases, fistula or fissures may develop.

Genitals cold, numb, or with shooting pains. Itching eruptions on scrotum or glans. Emissions without erection. Testes sore, swollen. Chronic urethritis with white discharge and burning. Sexual desire reduced.

Itching and burning of vulva with crusty eruptions. Leucorrhoea thick, yellow, acrid. Menses irregular, suppressed or too profuse, with severe cramping. Pain in ovaries, especially left-sided. Soreness in nipples and breasts. Skin eruptions may worsen before menses.

Shortness of breath, especially on walking or exertion. Tightness in chest. Wheezing or suffocative fits at night. Breath hot or offensive. Cough with neuralgic pains.

Palpitations from slightest emotion or exertion. Anxiety in the region of the heart. Pulse rapid, weak, or irregular. Sensation of tightness or pressure in the precordium.

Constricted sensation, worse at night. Burning or stabbing pains in the chest. Cough dry, hacking, or suffocative, worse from talking or cold air. Expectoration scanty or bloody. Painful nodes or ulcers may form on the sternum or ribs. Tubercular tendencies.

Stiffness and aching in neck and lumbar spine. Pain radiates to shoulders or sacrum. Bone pain worse at night, especially in periosteum. [Clarke] notes nodes and indurations along spine or sacrum.

Pain in long bones, especially tibia, worse at night. Cracking in joints, stiffness on waking. Neuralgic pains in arms and legs, extending along nerves. Skin of limbs often affected with burning eruptions or ulcers. Coldness or numbness of fingers and toes.

Keynote sphere. Thick, leathery, yellow-brown crusts, under which lies raw, ichorous, foul-smelling discharge. Especially on scalp, face, limbs. Burning, itching, and crawling, worse at night or from warmth. Suppressed eruptions lead to internal affections. Ulcers with callous edges, burning, and pus. Eczema, impetigo, psoriasis-like plaques with pain. Crusty eruptions behind ears and on joints. Painful herpes zoster (shingles), with post-herpetic neuralgia.

Restless, disturbed by itching, bone pain, or neuralgia. Sleepless after midnight. Dreams anxious or frightful. Waking unrefreshed, irritable.

Vivid, frightful dreams—of falling, burning, danger. Dreams often reflect internal unrest or unresolved illness. May feel they were ill during sleep.

Low-grade, chronic fevers in syphilitic states. Chills alternating with burning skin. Flushes of heat. Fever often nocturnal, accompanied by bone pain or ulcer discharges.

Chilliness, particularly in evening or at night. Heat follows chills with burning in face or limbs. Sweat offensive, staining sheets. Sweat relieves bone pain in some cases.

Aversion to meat, fat, milk. Desire for cold drinks and fresh foods. Eating may relieve facial pain or neuralgia. Aggravation from rich, fatty, or warm foods.

Strong destructive tendencies—skin, bone, and mucous membrane degeneration. Worse at night, from cold, and from suppressed discharges. Sensitivity to touch. Burning, gnawing, or boring pains. Useful in syphilitic states, eczema, shingles, facial neuralgia, bone necrosis.

• Hepar sulphuris – Skin conditions with suppuration, but Hepar is oversensitive to cold and lacks the thick crusts with foul discharge
• Sulphur – Itching and eruptions, but Sulphur lacks the intense ulceration and bone pains
• Mercurius – Similar ulceration and bone pains, but more salivation, glandular involvement, and sycotic features
• Arsenicum album – Burning pains and restlessness, but with more systemic exhaustion and anxiety
• Graphites – Eczema with crusts, but Graphites has more honey-like discharge and obese, chilly constitution

• Complementary: Sulphur, Calcarea carbonica
• Antidotes: Camphora, Mercurius
• Follows well: Merc., Sulph., Hepar sulph.
• Precedes well: Silicea, Nitric acid

• One of the top remedies for eczema with thick scabs and pus
• Consider in shingles, especially with burning and post-herpetic pain
• Useful for facial neuralgia relieved by eating
• Deep-acting in bone pain worse at night, especially tibia and zygoma
• For scalp eruptions with gluey, offensive discharge and falling hair

Skin

• Eruptions, crusty, thick, oozing pus
• Ulcers, burning, ichorous
• Itching, worse at night
• Shingles, post-herpetic pain

Face

• Neuralgia, zygoma, jaw, worse at night
• Pain, radiating to ears or temples
• Eruptions around mouth

Teeth

• Toothache, worse at night, better eating
• Pain radiates to ear
• Gums swollen, spongy

Bones

• Pain, boring, worse at night
• Periosteal pain, zygoma, tibia
• Worse damp cold

Generalities

• Worse night, cold air
• Suppressed eruptions
• Burning, boring pain

• Samuel Hahnemann – Materia Medica Pura: Primary proving data, core mental and skin symptoms
• C. Hering – Guiding Symptoms: Detailed clinical experiences in skin, bones, and nerves
• T.F. Allen – Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica: Rich proving and toxicological data
• William Boericke – Pocket Manual: Clinical focus, including facial neuralgia and skin uses
• John Henry Clarke – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica: Highlights syphilitic destruction and skin-crust pathology