Mezereum
Anhängsel
x!y
[remedia.at]
Erfahrung mit Daphne mezereum
Der Gemeine Seidelbast (Daphne mezereum) -auch Kellerhals oder Zeiland genannt- ist ein winterharter Strauch, der in Europa und Nordasien heimisch ist. Er wird 40 cm bis 1,50 m hoch und wächst in Laubwäldern oder Mischwäldern mit nährstoffreichem, kalkhaltigem Boden. Da er sehr frühzeitig blüht, manchmal noch im Schnee, scheint das Mittel öfters im Januar und Februar zu passen und zu helfen. Die stark fliederähnlich duftenden rosa Blüten sitzen meist zu dritt an den vorjährigen Zweigen. Erst nach der Blüte erscheinen im April die lanzettlichen, weichen, kurzgestielten Blätter.
So wie die ganze Pflanze sind auch die im Juni bis Juli reifenden erbsengroßen roten Beeren sehr giftig. Sie werden mit Vorliebe von Vögeln verspeist, auf die das Gift keine Wirkung hat.
Vergiftungen
Neben ätherischen Ölen und Harz enthält die Pflanze das Glykosid Daphnin und das giftige Mezerein, dem mit anderen Stoffen zusammen eine krebserregende Wirkung nachgesagt wird. Der Verzehr
von 6 - 10 Beeren oder anderer Pflanzenteile löst heftigste Vergiftungserscheinungen mit Übelkeit und Atemnot aus. Der Saft der frischen grünen Rinde macht laut H., wenn er die Haut berührt, ein langdauerndes, sehr schmerzhaftes Brennen. Seine stark ätzende Wirkung ruft ähnlich den Kanthariden eine heftige Entzündung mit Erythem, Blasen- und Pustelbildung, selbst Nekrosen hervor.
Die Schleimhäute werden in der gleichen Weise gereizt: Es kommt zu Niesen, heftigem Brennen im Hals, Erbrechen, Durchfällen und manchmal werden auch die Harnorgane angegriffen. Es entsteht
ein Reizzustand ähnlich dem von Cantharis. Das Nervensystem ist mit Kopfschmerzen, Schwindel, Delirien und Krämpfen beteiligt.
Volksheilkunde
Schon 400 v. Chr. wurden Seidelbastsamen als "knidische Körner" in den Hippokratischen Schriften erwähnt, das sind medizinische Schriften aus den Ärzteschulen von Kos (dem Geburtsort von Hippokrates) und Knidos, die unter dem Namen des Hippokrates überliefert worden sind. Im 1.Jh.n.Ch. beschrieb Dioskurides, ein griechischer Arzt und Pharmakologe, die Pflanze in seiner "Materia medica", einem aus fünf Büchern bestehenden Handbuch der abendländischen Medizin. Auch nördlich der Alpen war der Gemeine Seidelbast schon früh bekannt. Der Name Zeidelbast oder Zeiland
ist auf den germanischen Gott Ziu zurückzuführen, dem der Strauch, den die alten Germanen "Ziolinta" nannten, geweiht war. Man brauchte ihn in den vergangenen Jahrhunderten als Essigwürze und Abführmittel, gegen Wassersucht und Melancholie sowie gegen Geschwüre. Die getrockneten Früchte wurden gegen Halsschmerzen genommen. Da sie im Hals und auf der Zunge ein brennendes, würgendes, quälendes Gefühl hinterließen, altdeutsch "chellen" = quälen, ist noch heute "Chellerhals" im Schweizerdeutsch und in Süddeutschland der Name Kellerhals geläufig. Ein Pulver aus der Rinde wurde wegen seiner blasenziehenden Wirkung als Zugpflaster verwendet und wegen seiner Beziehung zur Knochenhaut auch als Gegenmittel bei Quecksilbervergiftungen benutzt. (Die Modalitäten der V. durch Kälte und nachts sind laut Mezger Mercurius gleich).
Arzneizubereitung
Verwendet wird die frische Zweigrinde, die im zeitigen Frühling vor Beginn der Blüte gesammelt wird. Sie hat einen schwach aromatischen Geruch, der an Bittermandeln erinnert.
Die gelbgraue Rinde wird zerschnitten und der Preßsaft mit Äthanol vermischt. Die so gewonnene Urtinktur ist eine braune bis grünlichbraune Flüssigkeit ohne besonderen Geruch aber mit - laut HAB - bitterem Geschmack und pelzigem Nachgeschmack.
Urtinktur und flüssige Verdünnungen werden nach Vorschrift 3a hergestellaut
[Tyler] "Besser als das Auspressen des Saftes ist es, die Rinde zu trocknen und gepulvert mit Milchzucker zu verreiben".
Arzneimittelwirkung: wirkt auf Haut, Schleimhäute, Nerven und Knochen.
Es wird in erster Linie bei einer Vielzahl von Hauterkrankungen eingesetzt: Von heftigem Juckreiz und Brennen selbst bei normaler Haut bis hin zu schwersten Hautveränderungen mit Eiter, Schorfen und Geschwüren < nachts/Wärme.
Da die Hautbeschwerden immer nur ein Teil des Gesamtleidens sind, gilt Mezereum als Psoramittel.
Es wirft die physischen Übel an die Oberfläche, so daß die Patienten sich wohlfühlen, wenn die Ausschläge herausgekommen sind.
Werden die Ausschläge aber unterdrückt, kommt es zu "katarrhalischen Beschwerden,
Knochenerkrankungen,
neurologischen Störungen,
seltsamen psychischen Symptomen,
Verstopfung,
[Kent] Rheuma und Gelenkbeschwerden
Mezereum läßt diese Entzündungen wieder verschwinden, der Hautausschlag kehrt zurück und kann endlich durch das Mittel geheilt werden.
*** [Allen] "Epidemien, die im Januar und Februar auftreten, verlangen häufig Mezereum."
Arzneimittelbild beim Menschen
Die Körperoberfläche befindet sich in einem ewigen Reizzustand. Es sind meist hellhaarige, unentschlossene, phlegmatische Menschen, hypochondrisch und verzagt. Alles ist ihnen egal. Trotzdem können sie über Nichtigkeiten wütend werden, was ihnen aber hinterher im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes "leid" tut. Sie leiden z.B. nach geringem Ärger an heftigem Kopfschmerz . So wie überhaupt vieles von Heftigkeit gekennzeichnet ist:
[Tyler] "Heftige Schmerzen, heftiges Jucken, heftiges Hungergefühl. Heftiges Brennen im Mund, heftige Schmerzen im Magen und in der Speiseröhre. Heftiger Hustenreiz. Heftiges hitziges Fieber.
All diese Heftigkeit verstärkt sich noch in der Nacht."
Geist und Gemüt:
Sehr gleichgültig, hat an nichts Freude. Traurige und verzweifelte Stimmung.
Gedanken verwirrt, Kopf benommen und Schwindelgefühl (Mezger)
Hypochondrisch und verzagt, wütend über Kleinigkeiten. (Allen)
Höchst gereizte Gemütsstimmung. Alles wird ihm zuwider, er möchte entlaufen. (Tyler)
Angst und Bangigkeit im Magen, als ob etwas Unangenehmes geschehen würde.
Angst wird im Magen empfunden (Calc., Kali-c., Phos)
Depressive Psychosen, Traurigkeit in Verbindung mit einer Vorgeschichte von Hautausschlägen, die nach Mezereum verlangt hätten. (Kent)
Nervensystem:
Neuralgien und Neuritiden (Mezger)
Neuralgien schnell kommend mit Kältegefühl und Frostigkeit, meist halbseitig, sehr schmerzhaft, Taubheitsgefühl folgt.
Ciliarneuralgie, (Stauffer)
Trigeminusneuralgie. (Mezger)
Interkostalneuralgie meist nach Herpes zoster.
Ischias zuckend und von der Hüfte zum Knie schießend.
Plötzliche, ziehende, reißende Schmerzen, scharf längs der Nerven schießend an Rumpf und Gliedern (Stauffer)
Kopf:
Große Empfindlichkeit gegen kalte Luft. (Boericke)
Jucken und Brennen der Kopfhaut. (Tyler)
Arges Beißen auf dem Kopfe wie von Läusen. (Tyler)
Schuppiger Ausschlag. Weiße Borken. (Boericke)
Nässend juckender Ausschlag auf dem Kopf und hinter den Ohren. (Graph.);
Schorfe auf dem Kopf, kreideartig, verbreiten sich bis zu den Augenbrauen, bis zum Nacken und Hals. (Tyler)
Ekzeme des Kopfes, dicke, harte Schorfe, die auf Druck Eiter absondern;
der Kopf ist mit einer dicken lederartigen Kruste überzogen, unter der sich dicker, weißer Eiter sammelt, der die Haare zusammenklebt. (Tyler)
Das Haar ist verfilzt. Der Eiter ist nach einiger Zeit jauchig, stinkt und läßt Ungeziefer entstehen (Allen) Der scharfe Eiter frißt das Haar weg. (Kent)
Heftiges Kopfweh nach kleinem Ärger. (Tyler)
"Dumm, berauscht und übernächtig im Kopfe."(Tyler)
Schädelknochenschmerz, durch Befühlen am meisten verschlimmert;
beim Druck an das Stirnbein Schmerz bis in den Fuß hinab. (Tyler)
Knochenkaries. (Tyler)
Gesicht:
Plötzliche heftige Gesichtsschmerzen während des Schlafs. (Tyler)
Heftige Neuralgie zum Ohr ausstrahlend, B. am heißen Ofen (Boericke)
Gesichtsneuralgie, wenn Schmerzen durch Essen oder sonstige Kieferbewegungen stark < durch ausstrahlende Wärme. (Nash)
Kratzt sich unaufhörlich im Gesicht bis es blutet. (Allen)
Gesicht mit Grind bedeckt, an verletzten Stellen bilden sich große fette Pusteln. (Tyler)
Zucken der rechten Wangenmuskeln (Tyler)
Augen:
Entzündet, mit drückendem Schmerz wie von Trockenheit.
Ekzeme der Lider mit Schorfen, die auf Druck Eiter absondern.
Muskelzucken auf dem linken oberen Augenlid . (Tyler)
Rötung der Bindehaut mit Brennen und Lichtscheu.
Trockenheitsgefühl. Sehschwäche. (Stauffer)
Ausschläge an Gesicht und Augen. Fissuren in den Augenwinkeln.
Rote Narben um die Augen an den Stellen der früheren Ausschläge. (Kent)
Ohren:
Gefühl von Verstopfung (Tyler)
Ohrenleiden nach unterdrückten Ausschlägen. (Kent)
Atrophische Degeneration der Schleimhäute (Kent)
Jucken im Ohr. Schwerhörigkeit. (Stauffer)
Nase:
Ständiges Wundsein der Nase (Aur-met./Sulph.) (Tyler)
Bläschenausschlag auf der Nase mit Bildung dicker Schorfe, (Nash)
Fließschnupfen, Wundheit und Schorfe in der Nase. (Tyler)
Adenoide Wucherungen im Nasenrachenraum. (Boericke)
Atrophische Degeneration der Nasenschleimhäute (Kent)
Mund:
Honigartiger Grind um den Mund. (Tyler)
Speichelfluß. Mund und Zunge schmerzhaft entzündet und wund mit Bläschen und Geschwüren. (Mezger)
Zahnschmerzen, wenn Schmerzen durch Essen oder sonstige Kieferbewegungen << , > ausstrahlende Wärme. (Nash)
Zahnschmerzen in kariösen Zähnen (Kreos.)
> bei geöffnetem Mund und beim Einziehen von Luft. (Allen)
Zahnschmerz bohrend < nachts; > beim Einziehen kalter Luft. (Stauffer)
Zähne schmerzhaft beim Zusammenbeißen und beim Eindringen freier Luft.
Heftiges Brennen im Munde. (Tyler)
Zähne verfaulen plötzlich über dem Zahnfleisch. (Tyler)
Zahnkronen intakt, Wurzeln verfallen. (umgekehrt Merc.) (Allen)
Atemwege:
Hitzegefühl und Kratzen im Schlund;
Brennen im Hals, Reiz zum Hüsteln, wenig Schleim. (Tyler)
Essen ruft Husten hervor, der nicht nachläßt, bis Erbrechen eintritt. (Mezger)
Husten trocken, quälend, schlimmer abends bis Mitternacht (Stauffer)
Krampfartiger gewaltsamer Keuchhusten. (Tyler)
Atrophische Degeneration der Rachenschleimhaut. (Kent)
Verdauungsorgane:
Ohne wahren Appetit und Hunger, doch fortwährend Begierde zu essen und etwas in den Magen zu bringen, damit er nicht so weh tue (Graph./Chel.);
Brechübelkeit, die durch essen vergeht (Sep.) (Tyler)
> Genuss von Milch und Schinkenspeck. (Tub.),
Verlangen nach fettem Schinken (Tyler)
Verlangen nach Hammelfett. (Boericke)
Muskelzuckungen im Bereich der Magengrube. (Tyler)
Heißes Essen und Trinken macht Husten und Würgen bis zum Erbrechen;
Erbrechen schokoladefarbig. (Stauffer)
Chronische Gastritis, brennender, wunder Schmerz. Übelkeit. (Boericke)
Magengeschwür mit viel Brennen. (Boericke)
Karzinom. (Stauffer)
Durchfälle mit Afterkrampf und Brennen. (Stauffer)
Durchfall mit kleinen, weißen Partikeln. (Boericke)
Grüne Entleerungen. (Boericke)
Verstopfung. Nach dem Stuhl Krampf des Schließmuskels. (Stauffer)
Verstopfung nach Niederkunft. Rektumprolaps. (Tyler)
Stühle hart wie Stein und groß. Im braunen Kot kleine weiße, glänzende Körner. (Tyler)
Harnwege:
Schmerz in der Blase.
Beißen und Brennen in der Harnröhre zum Schluß der Miktion.
Nach der Miktion ein paar Blutstropfen. (Boericke)
Männliche Genitalien:
Vergrößerung der Hoden. (Boericke)
Glieder:
Impetigo, Pusteln an den Fingergelenken; Milchschorf. (Stauffer)
Beine und Füße schlafen ein. Schmerz in Hüfte und Knie. (Boericke)
Unterschenkel von dickem, gelbem Grind bedeckt, aus dessen Rissen auf
Druck dicker, gelber Eiter sickert. (Tyler)
Geschwüre tief, am Unterschenkel. (Stauffer)
Große Schwäche, Lähmigkeit, Zucken und Zittern der Glieder. (Stauffer)
Ziehende und reißende Schmerzen in allen Giedern.
Schmerzen nachts im Periost der langen Röhrenknochen, bes. im Schienbein;
<: nachts/im Bett/durch die geringste Berührung; (Mezger)
<: feuchtes Wetter; (Tyler)
Periostitis an Stellen, wo die Haut am Knochen anliegt (Stauffer)
Haut:
Pruritus senilis, < Kratzen (bewährt). (Stauffer)
Heftiges Jucken, Brennen und Stechen selbst bei normaler Haut; < durch Kratzen und die Stelle wechselnd. (Staph.)
Hautentzündungen mit unerträglichem Jucken, zahlreichen Bläschen auf rotem Grunde, später platzend, nässend, mit Brennschmerz, Schorfe bildend.
Eitersekrete scharf, verkrustend wie Kreide.
Sie trocknen auch ein und dazwischen sickert Eiter aus. (Stauffer)
Ekzeme und juckende Ausschläge nach Impfung (Allen)
Ekzeme skrofulös, nässend und scharf. (Stauffer)
Ausschläge mit fressenden Sekreten (Mezger) ulzerieren und bilden dicke
Borken, unter denen Eiter hervorsickert. (Chrysophanicum acidum) (Boericke)
Ulzera juckend und brennend, von Blasen umgeben mit einem glänzenden, feurigroten Hof. (Boericke)
"Nach 8 Tagen trocknen Bläschen ab und hinterlassen Schorfe.
(Das Abreißen derselben verursacht große Schmerzen und verzögert die Heilung.)
Fallen die Schorfe in ganzen Stücken ab, hinterlassen sie tiefrote, wunde Hautstellen, die heftig jucken, eine dünne, klare Flüssigkeit absondern und wiederum dünne Schorfe bilden, unter
denen sich von neuem Eiter ansammelt
Die Haut um die Schorfe ist dunkelrot, gespannt, heiß und juckend.
Nachts unerträgliches Jucken und Brennen des Ausschlags, fauliger Geruch.
Trotz Kälteempfindlichkeit schlimmer durch Bettwärme oder Feuerhitze." (Tyler)
Herpes zoster-artige Bilder. (Stauffer)
Neuralgie und Brennen nach Gürtelrose.
Milchschorf und verschiedene Formen der Impetigo: C200 (Tyler)
DD.:
Mercurius.
Periostschmerzen: Phyt., Hep. Still. Asa foetida.
Nässender Hautausschlag: Rhus-t. Euphorbium, Manc. Graph.Ranunc.
Gesichtsneuralgie: Verb. Plant.
Stomatitis: Arum, Phyt. Borax,
Kali-m. Kali-bi. Hydr. Nit-ac. Hep.
Lach.
Herpes zoster: Rhus-t. Canth. Anac. Mand. (Mezger)
Gegenmittel:
Sul-ac. Acon. Bry. Calc. Camph. Kali-i. Merc. Nux-v.
<: nachts/kalte Luft/Bewegung/Druck/bei Berührung (Boericke)/kaltes Waschen, Folgen von Quecksilber oder Alkohol (Allen)/warmem, trockenem Wetter/jede Art von Wärme (King)/
Wärme oder Kälte (Tyler)
>: im Freien (Boericke)/Essen, frische Luft (Allen)/bei Bewegung und während des Winters (King);
Dosierung: C6 - C30 (Boericke), D6 - D12 (Stauffer).
Im allgemeinen werden von der D6 ansteigende Verdünnungen empfohlen. Andererseits kann man bis zur D3 heruntergehen.
Bei Spätfolgen von Hautausschlägen
Hochpotenzen. (Mezger)
[M.L. Tyler]
It powerfully affects skin,
bones, mucous membranes. Its action is characterized throughout by VIOLENCE (pain/itching/sudden/in
face during sleep/sensations of hunger/burning in mouth/in stomach and
oesophagus/inclination to cough/lower down than can be reached by cough/acute
fever/at night);
And all its violence is more
violent by night. It is one of the remedies that may be needed in the treatment
of syphilis; also may be needed in a variety of skin conditions (very severe
skin lesions), characterized by violent itching, and < at night/from heat of
bed: the one drug that has go into the Repertory, as "eruptions itching,
worse warmth of fire".
It has annoying twitchings
(eyelid/twitchings and jerking of muscles of right cheek/twitching of muscles
in pit of stomach).
It is one of the few remedies
that love and crave fat ham; > drinking milk/bacon. (Tub.).
Some of its pains are violently
burning:"peppery" burnings (Caps.) ; and it has fiery taste; salty
and peppery taste; bitter and sour taste-especially beer tastes bitter (not
water), and causes vomiting.
The stomach conditions
(ulcer/induration/carcinoma) are curious. Without hunger, there may be constant
desire to eat and take something into stomach, whereby he has less pain.
Constant longing for food. Nausea disappears after eating. (Sep.).
In regard to its
"skins", one never forgets a recurrent experience with Mezereum cm.,
when doing childrens and casualty works at the hospital during the War:
children being ill-nourished, probably lent themselves to such miserable
conditions. The experience was with the many cases of kerion (tinea kerion = ringworm),
thus described in text-books: "marked inflammatory symptoms with
circumscribed boggy tumefaction of the scalp, which is covered with pustules,
or with gaping orifices from which exudes viscid pus". (abscess: incised,
instead of a pocket of pus, a number of pus points merely exude, the individual
hair cells being the seat of innumerable small abscesses).
As a matter of fact, it is.
Hahnemann tells us, if we would only heed, that for "miasmatic"
diseases, acute or chronic, i.e. for diseases caused by parasitic organisms,
which have in each case the same origin, the same symptoms, the same course,
"a specific should be found". And doubtless kerion is a specific
parasitic infection, caused by micro-organisms, and having the same origin, the
same symptoms and the same course; for which, so far as epidemic experience
with a dozen or so cases is concerned, Mezereum is the specific; and it proved
itself so by acting magnificently in the single dose of the highest potency one
had been able to lay hands on. Therefore let us once again quote Hahnemann, in
regard to "Infectious diseases, caused by a peculiar contagium (a miasm of
tolerably fixed character such as small-pox, measles, true scarlet fever, etc.
. . . These seem so fixed in their course as to be always recognized as old
acquaintances. They can be named, and we can endeavour to lay down some fixed
method of treatment suitable, as a rule, for each of them".
DUNHAM: lifelong deafness cured
with Mez. He traced it back to a severe attack of just such tinea capitis, in
childhood; and, by treating that ancient condition - all those years later - he
managed to restore hearing, utility and happiness to a boy whose life had, till
then, been blasted. It was a case, evidently, of what we may venture to call,
"chronic kerion". It bears out explained that, in ill-health dating
from some acute illness, where the patient, apparently recovered, has never
been well since, we may be really dealing with Chronic Measles, Chronic
Diphtheria, Chronic Vaccinosis (Burnett), Chronic Pneumonia, etc., and we may
prove our case (to our own satisfaction, anyway) by seeing the rapid leap to
better life and energy, after a dose or two of Diph., Morb., Pneumococcin,
Scarl. or Strept., Vario. or Thuj. according to the "past history" of
the sufferer.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS.
Hypochondriac and despondent.
Takes no pleasure in anything.
Everything seems to him dead,
and nothing makes a vivid impression upon his mind.
Very violent HEADACHE: head painful
to slightest touch (after a slight vexation).
Bone pain in bones of skull,
especially aggravated by contact.
Cranial bones pain,. are
swollen and sensitive to cold and contact: worse from motion and in the
evening. Caries.
Itching and burning of SCALP.
Head covered with a thick
leather-like crust, under which thick white pus collects here and there, and
hair is glued together.
On the head, great elevated
white scabs,under which ichor collects in quantity, and which begins to be
offensive and to breed vermin.
Eyes: sensation of
dryness.
Obstinate jerking of the
muscles of left upper lid.
Ears: Sensation of air
distending the external meatus. (Then left.).
Teeth: feel blunt and
elongated: painful on biting or from fresh air.
Violent burning in mouth.
Heat and scraping in fauces.
Throat and pharynx:
Burning, dryness in fauces, hacking cough; anxious oppression of breath,
loosening of scanty mucus on coughing.
Stomach: Vomits BEER,
which has a bitter taste (not water).
Pain in periosteum of long
BONES, especially tibia: worse at night in bed ; least touch is intolerable.
Worse in damp weather.
Bones inflamed, swollen (shafts
of cylindrical bones); after abuse of Mercury and venereal disease.
Eczema, itching intolerably,
copious serous exudation.
Neuralgia and burning after
zona.
Face: Skin is of a deep
inflammatory redness, and the eruption is "fat" and moist.
Child scratches the face
continually; it becomes covered with blood.
In the night the child
scratches its face so that the bed is covered with blood in the morning; and
the face is covered with a scab which the child keeps constantly tearing off
anew, and on the spots thus left raw, large (fat) pustules form.
Ulcers covered with thick whitish-yellow
scabs, under which thick, yellow pus collects.
Vesicles appear around the
ulcers, itching, violently and burning like fire. After eight days these
vesicles dry up, leaving scabs, the tearing off of which causes great pain and
retards healing.
SOME QUEER, OR ITALIC SYMPTOMS
.
Irritable; averse to
everything; desire to run away. (Bell., etc).
Apprehensiveness in pit of
stomach (Kali-c.) as when expecting some very unpleasant news.
Everything vexes him; he wants to
say all kinds of annoying and vexatious things.
Unable to recollect: or
understand. Every intercurrent remark of others disturbed and confused his
ideas.
Head dull, as if intoxicated:
as of he had been up all night.
Headache from root of nose into
forehead as if everything would press asunder.
On pressing frontal bone it
pains and draws down to the feet.
Heat and perspiration on head;
chilliness and coldness in rest of body (morning).
Sensation upper part of head,
as if pithy.
Pressing pains as if skull
would split.
On head, great elevated white
scabs: chalky scabs, extend to eyebrows and nape of neck.
Violent biting on head,m as if
from lice.
Pressure in eyeballs, as if too
large.
Moist, itching eruption on head
and behind ears. (Graph.).
Dry eruption on head, with
intolerable itching, as if head was in an ants nest. (Favus.)
Eczema of lids and head; thick
hard scabs, from which pus exudes on pressure.
Ears feel „As if too open“/“As
if air was pouring into them“; or „As if tympanum was exposed to cold air“;
with desire to bore with finger into ear.
Oozing eruption behind ears.
Fluent coryza, scabs in
nose-soreness. Constant excoriation of nose. (Compare Aur., Sulph.).
Facial muscles drawn tense:
troublesome twitching of muscles of right cheek.
Feeling „As if eyes were drawn
backward into head“. „As if wind blowing into r. ear“.
Honey-like scabs about mouth.
„As if tooth was being lifted
out of socket“.
Teeth decay suddenly above
gums; crowns remain intact.
Decaying roots.
Peppery sensation on palate and
in fauces.
Canine hunger noon and evening.
Loss of appetite.
Desire for ham fat, coffee,
wine.
Beer tastes bitter and causes
vomiting.
Burning in whole mouth as from
pepper.
Ulcer of stomach.
Induration of stomach.
Burning, corroding pains in
stomach, „As if it were raw inside“.
Stool contains glistening
bodies. Small, white, shining grains in brown faces.
Anus becomes painful and
constricted about fallen rectum.
Stools hard as a stone and large; as if they would split anus.
Sticking in kidney, and pain as
if torn.
Corroding leucorrhoea.
Dyspnoea as if from adhesions
or contraction of lungs.
Cough spasmodic: yellow viscid
mucus: tastes saltish.
Cough: when eating or drinking
anything hot must cough till he vomits: from beer.
Intercostal neuralgia, follows
herpes zoster. (Ran. bulb., Ars.).
Limbs feel as if shortened.
Right is cold, left warm; or both cold.
Paralysis of flexors of
fingers; finger-ends powerless, cannot hold anything.
Violent pain in tibia as if
beaten, or as if periosteum were torn off, after midnight.
Leg, from knee to instep,
covered with thick yellow scab, from cracks of which thick, yellow matter oozes
on pressure.
Scabs fall of in pieces,
leaving skin deep-red, sore, itching violently and exuding a thin, clear,
fluid, forming a thin scab under which pus again collects; skin round scab
dark-red, tense, hot, itching. At night intolerable itching and burning in eruption.
Foul odour. (Herpes crustaceous).
Violent nightly pains in bones
of feet.
Feeling of great lightness of
body.
Especially indicated in January
and February.
Worse from heat and cold.
Head especially worse cold:
cranial bones, pains in scalp, etc.
Yet worse heat of bed: of fire:
itching of scalp and feet. (Like Puls.), is chilly and drowsy in a warm room.
Hands and feet cold: nails
blue. With hot spot on top of head.
Sensations: as if drunk. As if
upper part of head were pithy. As if skull would split. As if top of head were
gone.
Eyes drawn backward: ears open.
Teeth too long: ants running
over chest.
As if skull would split: stools
would split anus: kidneys as of torn. Periosteum torn.
Throat narrowing. Chest too tight:
limbs too short.
Sticking like needles: Millions
of insects crawling on him.
Twitching pains: in hollow
teeth; from hip joint to knee; in cheek: in eyelid.
Like fire darting through
muscles.
Constriction, throat, stomach,
round prolapsed anus.
Bones feel distended.
HUGHES (Pharmacodynamics) tells
us that Mezereum was one of the vegetable substances. . . with which it was
attempted to replace mercury in the treatment of syphilis. He refers to its
influence over nodes and nocturnal pains. He says, Hahnemanns pathogenesis in
the Fragmenta, mentions such pains as caused by it in the cranium, clavicle and
thighs, and several of the later provers report the same experience: in
homoeopathic practice we use it with much confidence in these affections, and
in simple or rheumatic periostitis. "Whether it acts on the bones
themselves, I hesitate to say." But he says there is on re cord a case in
which it seemed to check the necrosis of jaw produced by phosphorus.
The Homoeopathic method, he says,
has added another valuable application of Mezereum-to cutaneous affections. The
plant is a violent acrid, and irritates the skin when externally applied, and
the throat, stomach and intestines when swallowed. He tells of intolerable
itching over the whole body caused by the internal use of the drug; and of the
reputation of Mez. as "about the best medicine for shingles; and not only
for the eruption, but also for the consecutive neuralgia." He also quotes
Dunham: "These symptoms suggest at once the applicability of Mez. to
crusta lactea, to various forms of pure impetigo; and to some of those
mercurial or mercurio-syphilitic ulcers on the lower extremities which are
often so difficult to cure. I have frequently had occasion to witness the
prompt curative action of Mezereum in these affections, in which I have
generally used the 200th potency. This has proved efficacious in cases in which
the lower dilutions have been inert. The characteristics of the Mezereum skin
diseases are well defined in the above symptoms, viz. itching occurring in the
evening in bed., aggravated and turned to burning by touch or by scratching;
sensitiveness to touch; ulcers with an areola, sensitive and easily bleeding,
painful at night; the pus tends to form an adherent scab, under which a
quantity of pus collects." Hughes also quotes Pareira, "The urinary
organs are sometimes affected by it, an irritation similar to that of Canth.
being set up".
NASH gives, pain in long bones
(tibia).
Facial neuralgia or toothache,
when pains are greatly worse by eating or motions of jaw: better by radiate
heat.
Nose: vesicular eruption, with
excoriations, formation of thick scabs, worse at night: Zona.
He says, "I once cured a
very obstinate case of facial neuralgia with it: worse by eating: only relief
was to hold face as near as he could to a hot stove: no other heat applied wet
or dry, relieved. (This is interesting,because Mez. is, in "skins"
anyway, markedly < from heat of fire. ED).
GUERNSEY, Keynotes: Often
useful in cases of very violent neuralgic pains about teeth or face, (l. bone)
running towards the ear. Also neuralgic pains at night in teeth: teeth left
side. Shin bone.
Mouth waters.
Urine with red flakes which
float on top of urine.
Subsultus tendinum. When fingers
are put on wrist or on other parts of body, the tendons are felt to jump and
jerk.
Burning: darting in muscles,
like fire darting through them.
Let us seek final enlightenment
and emphasis from KENT, that graphic painter of symptomatology.
Eruptive complaints: eruptions and
ulcerations.
The outer surfaces of the body
are in a constant state of irritation: nervous feelings, biting, tingling,
itching, changing from place to place on scratching. The part becomes cold
after scratching.
Itching begins as soon as he
gets warm in bed,or into a warm room.
KENT: thick, tough, leathery crusts
; with fluctuation beneath the crusts, where pressure causes the oozing of
thick white pus . . . vermin often found among the crusts. Acrid pus, eats away
the hair . . . Cases with a history of suppressed eczema or syphilis.
Eruptions, red cicatrices about face and eyes: fissures in corners of eyes.
Ear trouble from suppressed eruptions.
. . . atrophic catarrh: degeneration of mucous membranes, ear, nose, throat.
Has all the catarrhal states, the ulcerations and patches of copper-coloured
eruptions found in syphilis.
It tends to manifest the
sufferings of the body in the skin ; it throws the physical evils to the
surface. The Mezereum patient is in fairly good health when the eruptions are
out. When suppressed, catarrhal affections, nervous disorders, strange mental
symptoms, constipation, rheumatism, joint-symptoms appear ; he becomes a mental
wreck.
Religious or financial
melancholy: melancholy in regard to his business: indifference to everybody and
everything. . . . Insanity with melancholy, sadness, and a history of eruptions
that have called for Mezereum. . . .
Sensation of goneness, fear,
apprehension, faintness in stomach, as if something would happen. Every shock,
pain, bad news, when the door bell rings, when he expects the postman, or a
friend, or when introduced to someone,he experiences a thrill beginning in stomach:
he is frightened in the stomach". "These solar plexus individuals
have often a deep cracked tongue“.
[Susan Drury, RSHom]
A remedy in the Thymelaceae Family, of the Malvales superorder. It is a
deciduous plant with bright lilac-purple, neon pink or white flowers appearing
on bare twigs in late January, February or March, followed by thin soft green
leaves in summer and brilliant scarlet berries in September. By flowering in
winter or very early spring, it makes a striking, noticeable appearance - new
life quickening, even as everything around it is still dormant and bare. It
likes more sun than other variety of Daphne plants and needs summer irrigation
to stay healthy. Due to its extreme toxicity, it has been used sparingly in
medicine.
Although Rajan Sankaran writes about the Malvales in his “An Insight to
Plants,” he doesn’t include the Thymelaceae despite there being three
homeopathic remedies (Daphne Mezereum, Daphne Indica and Dirca Palustris) in
the family. The sensation and reaction he attributes to the Malvales is one of
“Together and then Separated, Joined and then Separated, Attached and then
Detached.” From my own experience and that of my patient, Mezereum shares this
sensation, with its own unique sensitivity as to what triggers the sensation
and reactions thereafter.
Along with being an excellent remedy for neuralgias, Mezereum has a
powerful effect on skin eruptions which can be severe. Vermeulen: “A powerful
irritant to skin and gastrointestinal tract and has caused numerous fatal accidents.
One of the oldest plants recognized as poisonous… Daphne Mezereum is the
deadliest of them all. Mezerein in the seeds creates great inflammation,
ulceration and vesication.” It is the only remedy listed in the rubric
“Generals - History, personal, eruptions of.”
My Mezereum patient came to me to resolve her persistent, severe,
weeping, itching, burning eczema which she had had for many years: “My skin can
get itching, burning, hot, can get moist if you scratch it. Scratching the head
off the bumps, they would ooze and then harden. If I’m in a vulnerable
situation, it goes crazy - swollen skin, red, hot, puffy, itchy and then slowly
it forms a dried out crust.”
History: A terrible case of impetigo on my chin as a teenager, and as an
adult would periodically get sudden, itchy blisters on my lower back, as well
periodic sore, herpetic-type eruptions on the palm of my right hand. If I
didn’t break the vesicles, a painful systemic infection would ensue with a red
streak up my arm so I learned to be meticulous about opening the blisters and
draining them over the course of a few days until they healed.
Mezereum’s toxic principles are absorbed not only by the skin, but also
by the gastrointestinal tract. The remedy can have great stomach pains, often +
with anxiety.
As a child “used to have terrible stomach pains, it was a big upheaval
for me, we had just moved, mother went back to university, everything was
different, cold and wet, mother not home all the time. Had terrible stomach
pain, anxiety felt in stomach; cramping, doubling over would help. Now if I’m
anxious, get stomach pains but not so bad.” While I never suffered from stomach
pain per se, many times I would get an overall sick feeling of anxiety, usually
when I perceived I had made a mistake or done something wrong. (Mind - fear,
stomach arising from; Stomach - Anxiety)
The remedy can also be good for sinus congestion or sinusitis.
Grandgeorge: “It produces dramatic results in cases of bilateral
maxillary sinusitis… the key to the remedy is found here. The maxillary sinuses
are hollow facial organs which contain anatomical structures sensitive to the
magnetic field in the environment. These organs give migratory birds, for
example, a sense of direction and orientation. Following a move, travel in a
foreign country, a resort vacation etc., Mezereum subjects’ maxillary sinuses
become blocked and they “lose their bearings.”
This idea of a loss of bearings points to a major theme and potential
etiology for the Mezereum state. Vermeulen: “Temperamental in the garden, it
has a strong aversion to being moved once established and has a sudden
propensity to die for little or no apparent reason.” For those with a Mezereum
sensitivity, moving can be a trigger for the disease state.
My own disease arose after just such an event. No stranger to moving, I
grew up living around the world as my father worked internationally. As a shy
only child, changing countries and schools was never easy however my mother
especially provided comfort and support with each move and overseas communities
were fluid and welcoming. Coming to Vancouver, however, was a different story.
I had moved to New York City after experiencing a mystical inner
calling, and as an aspiring opera singer, it was wonderful, fertile ground; I
felt I had finally come home. While in New York I met and married my Canadian
husband whose dream was to get back to Vancouver. Soon we had a baby girl and
life was rich and fulfilling. So when he announced that the time had come to
move back to Vancouver, I was struck both dumb and numb - although I’d known it
would happen “some time,” the reality had never sunk in. In the face of his
decision, there were no words to speak otherwise. My own feelings of dismay
were suppressed and just as through my childhood, I was carried along by
someone else’s momentum.
The price of such acquiescence, however, was a high one. I was adrift
and alone in Vancouver. This was my husband’s dream and everything was his -
his home town, his family, his friends, his job. While I had felt conflicted
about the move, suddenly being plunked down into this foreign world brought
home all I had lost. Torn from the vibrant life I knew and loved, here I only
felt dullness. While my husband was off at his new job, my life shrunk to
taking my daughter to a park where for hours I would sit, watching her chase
pigeons, numbness occasionally broken with spells of weeping (Mind - dullness,
looking out the window lasting for hours; Mind - Indifference, dead to him
everything seems).
My sensations clearly fit into the “attachment and then detachment” of
Sankaran’s Malvales description and I expressed the passive reaction state -
feelings of estrangement and indifference. Before I had been attached to a home
and life where I flourished; now I was separated from everything. My response
was to lose my sense of self, as if I was now nothing (Mind - delusion, dead,
everything is). Had I been the plant, surely I would have died. Instead, I
began to experience sudden shooting stabs of excruciating, overwhelming pain in
my face.
In flower language, Daphne Mezereum means “desire to please” and this is
perhaps the central theme of the remedy - pleasing others, even if at your own
expense. Highly attuned to those they are attached to, Mezereum will feel
compelled to please, even when counter to their own needs or instincts:
When was your skin really bad? “That was around my mother. I had to
separate from her in a way that was hard for me and she wasn’t participating
in. She was attached to me, could infantilize me so it was hard when I had to
move out from that… I have a tendency to be drawn in, I wanted to please her so
I did be that person.”
If they lose too much contact with their own desires and sense of self,
their physical pathology may become their sole experience of
self-differentiation:
What did you experience? “Sense of being taken over by the other
person’s agenda, diminished, my own needs diminished and the other person’s
agenda having to be accommodated. I felt like nothing, I had no sense of myself
at all. I was no different than a stone on the beach… covered in eczema, I
didn’t exist except for this burning skin. Burning, oozing, hot, itchy, but I
couldn’t tell anyone, I had to hide it.”
Why does Mezereum so need to please others? While some authors put this
remedy in the sycotic miasm as there is the feeling of needing to hide, I
suggest it belongs more to the contemporary understanding of the Leprosy or
even Syphillitic miasm: while the sensation of separation feels like torture
and exile, attachment to others at your own expense is equally oppressive,
leading to self-alienation and despair: “ I Felt the sense of impossibility of
changing or affecting anything. Disappearance, diminishment of me, vulnerable,
helpless, hopeless. My brain was gone. Numbness, like under a bell jar, numb
emotionally, everything shut down. So highly attuned to my mother’s comments,
voice, opinions, whatever.”
Being so attuned to pleasing, they are easily overcome with feelings of
shame and guilt, especially when something happens to upset or anger the
person/people they need to please - whether they were responsible for it, or
not. They can experience the delusion of having done something terrible or of
being wrongly blamed for something they haven’t done. I had several minor car
incidents that most people would have shrugged off but which left me feeling
sick with guilt and shame, as if I would never be forgiven. I had a series of
dreams of innocently doing something perceived as wrong - or being prevented
from carrying out a duty to people I wanted to please - and the feeling of
having done something unforgiveable for which I would be punished forever was
so horribly real that when I finally woke up, I had trouble accepting it having
truly been a dream. Even imaginary scenarios of something for which I could be
blamed would fill me with dread and guilaut In the repertory there are rubrics
such as “Mind - Anxiety, Salvation about; and Mind - Despair, Religious despair
of salvation;” these rubrics need not refer to a religious God but instead
reflect the fear of being cast out and forever unforgiven by whatever authority
the person feels themselves to be under.
During the trigeminal neuralgia years, I had a powerful shamanic vision
in a cranial sacral session: I experienced myself being alone, naked and staked
out in a flat, endless desert under a hot sun. I was spread-eagled, my arms and
legs tied to stakes and my belly had been split open, leaving my entrails
exposed to birds and other creatures. This was done to me by others without
reason, I was innocent of any wrongdoing - and yet they staked and abandoned
me, exposed, ripped open, to be slowly picked away at and die, in the endless,
barren desert under a burning, relentless sky.
My patient also spoke of the sensation of helplessly being attacked or
split open in the stomach and chest: “I feel guilty, as far as my sisters are
concerned, I abandoned my mother, had to get distance from her - I did turn
away from her in order to save myself. Comments from sisters can make me feel
guilty because mother was very hurt. It was life or death for me. (It feels as
if) you were attacked in the chest, stomach, something shameful feels trapped,
caught in the chest area. (I feel) revulsion at the attack and inability to
stand up for myself. You don’t feel you are in the wrong, but (feel burning)
shame and you are caught, no way out.”
The name Daphne comes from Greek mythology; Daphne was the beautiful
nymph of the Peneios river and had resolved to spend her life in perpetual
virginity. Apollo loved and wanted her but she ran from him until in
exhaustion, she begged the gods for help and was changed into a laurel tree.
Apollo loved her, even in her tree form. Embracing the branches as though they
were still limbs, he kissed the wood but even as wood, she shrank from his
kisses. Imagine this as a metaphor for Mezereum’s delusional state - someone
else’s desire for you conflicting with your own sense of destiny, your shape
becomes changed in a last-ditch effort to preserve basic integrity. However
although the core is preserved, you are now rooted in place, helpless to
escape. Reduced to being a piece of wood, you suffer the loss of your unique
human expression while still, although not able to fullfill their desires,
subject to their attention and influence.
Nymphs in Greek mythology were depicted as beautiful minor female
deities connected to a particular place in nature such as a spring, river or
mountain. Daphne was a river nymph who wanted the independence of virginity -
perhaps so she could devote her existence to exploring the depths of water’s
intuitive knowledge and feelings. (Mind - absorbed; Mind - Meditating; Mind -
Introspection).
Likewise Mezereum’s inner life is a deep source of rich creativity and
other-worldly insights, and can give rise to unique and unprecedented
realizations. My own life has been punctuated by a number of unexpected
transcendental spiritual experiences. The plant’s beautiful, early flowering
suggests spontaneous inspiration and unprecedented expression perhaps not yet
understood by the outer world.
For Mezereum individuals to commune with their inner inspiration, a lot
of solitary time dedicated to experiencing and plumbing their depths is
required. Being so highly attuned to the needs and desires of others, however,
is again the conflict that separates them from themselves: “If I’m too
over-exposed to others… I can’t be aware of my own needs. Everybody else’s
needs are way more important and I attend to them and don’t know what it is I
could possibly really want myself. My creativity seems to need a huge amount of
space and time. Takes a lot of quiet and solitude for that process to occur
which is a process that I enjoy and need.” (Mind - Concentration difficult, if
interrupted)
Without that time for solitude and reflection, especially when around
too many people or demands on them, there can be a feeling of exhaustion or
fragility. Too much exposure to others can sap their life forces: “Invaded is
another way to describe it. Invaded right into your inner self and no
protective (hand gesture like an outer cover)… able to be invaded.” Even too much exposure to the outer world or
television can be difficult: “I’m sensitive to things that are going to make me
sad or depressed, too many children lost in snow, pedophile ring, whatever. I
feel I need to filter out, I’m too thin skinned. Thicker skin would be nice!”
When in a healthy state, Mezereum’s sense of stamina and thicker skin
around others and events in the world can improve. After the remedy my client said “I found I
was more relaxed when talking with people. One friend is extremely talkative,
sometimes I find it unbearably exhausting but I seemed to keep my energy up. I
feel a lot more resilience, not so much sensitivity, a bit more drive and
determination.”
Harry Van der Zee’s “Miasms in Labour” was my original source of
Mezereum information and his description is a “conflict in loyalty where they
are torn apart between two conflicting emotions, resulting in ambivalent and
suppressed impulses.” This is another way of expressing Mezereum’s conflict
between the desire/obligation to please someone else while continuing to heed
one’s inner desires and truth. When pleasing the other means suppressing your
own desires, you lose the sense of what you want; should something happen which
displeases the other, terrible guilt, fear and the delusion of having done
something unforgiveable weighs heavily. Over time, either side of the conflict
can lead to illness, which for Mezereum will be of a painful, burning, violent
nature.
A partial list of Mezereum characteristics includes:
Physical feeling of coldness, iciness (despite many sensations of
burning);
Neuralgic symptoms - neuralgic headaches extending to the eye or
trigeminal neuralgia; herpes zoster with burning, neuralgic pain; neuralgia
after shingles;
Burning symptoms - violent burning, often in mucus membranes such as the
mouth or stomach; burning neuralgic pains, burning skin eruptions;
One-sided symptoms;
Violently itching, weeping eruptions, often disfiguring - eczema,
itching, burning, thick crusts with cracks, oozing thick, white pus; itching
eruptions after vaccination; itching changes place on scratching;
Issues around disfigurement, disfigured face; or conversely, deceiving
appearances, outward show or glamour;
Being stigmatized or wrongly blamed for things;
Anger, followed by quick repentance;
Bad effects from history of suppressed eruptions or in eruptions
following vaccination;
Bone pain - affects long bones, and also bones of face and head; also
can affect the teeth.
The price of an unhealthy Mezereum state is a high one; feeling
obligated to follow the desires of others, they no longer are in touch with
their own inner direction and desires. If anything goes wrong for the others,
they suffer tremendous guilt as if having done something unforgiveable for
which they will be punished and outcast. As their individuality becomes stunted
in response to the demands of others, this psychic annihilation will be
expressed through violent, often disfiguring pathology.
However without the illness, one cannot find the cure. Under Mezereum’s
healing influence, the terrible conflict gradually dissolves and they are no
longer in bondage to the desires /influences of others or under the threat of
exile and damnation. As the focus of attention moves away from the people and
the environment around them and turns to attending one’s own inner treasure
trove of inspiration, they are able to experience their deeper truth and have
the freedom to embody their uniqueness. Through the remedy, their potential is
finally accessible to them and allowed to flower, bringing their individual
beauty of expression to the world.
Vorwort/Suchen.Zeichen/Abkürzungen
. Impressum.