Mezereum

Prepared from the bark of the Daphne mezereum, a deciduous shrub native to Europe. The bark and berries are highly toxic, containing mezerein and daphnin, known for their blistering and vesicant properties.

Formerly used externally as a vesicant or rubefacient; internally in folk medicine for syphilis and skin affections, though now obsolete due to its toxicity.

First proved by Hahnemann; published in Materia Medica Pura; further expanded by Hering and Allen through toxicological and clinical observations

• 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

• 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

Mezereum reflects the deep syphilitic miasm—destructive, ulcerative, crusted, and hidden under a veneer of suppression. It suits hypersensitive individuals with chronic neuralgia, suppressed eruptions, or burning ulcerations. The keynote is in the skin and periosteum—where crusts, scabs, and deep bone pains mirror psychological tension and repression. The emotional state is gloomy, anxious, and at times despairing—mirroring the chronic stagnation and internal fire of the pathology.

• 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