DAPHNE MEZEREUM. 
COMMON MEZEREON, OR SPURGE-OLIVE. 
Class VIII. OCTANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, THYMEL^EJS. THE MEZEREUM TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) represents the calyx spread open, to show the insertion of the stamens; (6) section of the pistil, showing the solitary pendulous 
ovule; .(c) fruit; (d) section of the fruit, to show the solitary seed; (e) section of the seed; (/) the embryo. 
Mezereon is a low shrub, which occurs wild in some parts of England, and produces its flowers in 
March. It is first mentioned as a native of our island, by Miller, who found it plentifully near Andover, in 
Hampshire. Since that it has been observed in several other places, as at Laxfield, in Suffolk ; in Needwood 
Forest, Staffordshire; in the beech-woods in Buckinghamshire; at Eastham and Stanford', Worcestershire; 
near Appleton, Berks; and in Wich-wood Forest, Oxfordshire. 
It has a strong root, which gives off a number of small slender fibres covered with a smooth olive- 
coloured bark. The stem is bushy, with nearly upright alternate branches, covered with a smooth grey bark, 
and seldom growing above four or five feet high. The leaves are deciduous, lanceolate, scattered, smooth, 
stalked about two inches long, and half an inch broad, appearing after the flowers, and accompanied by 
flower-buds for the next season. The flowers are disposed in clusters, about three together, on the naked 
branches, with several smooth, ovate bracteas underneath ; they are of a pale rose colour, fragrant, 
sessile, monosepalous, tubular, with the lip divided into four deep ovate, spreading segments. The calyx, 
which constitutes what is usually denominated the flower, resembles a corolla in texture, and contains the 
stamens. The filaments are eight, alternately shorter, inserted into the tube, and supporting roundish oblong 
anthers. The germen is ovate, superior, bearing a flattish, entire stigma, on a very short style. The fruit 
is a pulpy scarlet berry, containing a single seed, and is the favourite food of some species of finch. The 
seed is pendulous, and exalbuminous. The embryo straight, with a superior radicle. The cotyledons 
plano-convex ; and" the plumula small. Of this species of Mezereon there is a variety with white flowers, 
and yellow or orange-coloured berries. 
Qualities. — The bark of the root, which is the part used in medicine, is united to the ligneous fibre by 
a woolly substance, which is the inner part of the liber. The recent bark is very acrid, and, when chewed, 
powerfully excites the salivary glands, and creates burning sensations in the mouth, which last for a con- 
siderable time. M. Vauquelin has discovered a new vegetable principle in the Daphne Albina, which he 
calls Daphnine ; it is probably present in most of the other species. 
Poisonous Effects. — Several species of Daphne are poisonous, and the berries of this plant prove 
so to man, dogs, wolves, and foxes. Linnaeus reports, that a young lady labouring under intermittent 
fever, died from haemoptysis, in consequence of having taken twelve berries of the Daphne Mezereum, and 
Yicat states, that an hydropic patient having taken the wood of Mezereon, was suddenly attacked with diar- 
rhoea which was continued, and accompanied with insupportable pains. Fie had besides, for six weeks, 
-vomitings which returned every day with extreme violence; although during the whole time, proper remedies 
were employed in order to quiet them. 
M. Blatin also narrates the case of a person who took a decoction of the root of Mezereon, instead of 
marsh-mallow. It occasioned violent pains in the stomach and intestines, accompanied by strong burning 
sensations in the skin, restlessness, loss of appetite, intense fever, and irregular actions of the tendons. 
These symptoms were relieved by drinking copiously of a sweetened decoction of marsh-mallow. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — It is very generally allowed that Mezereon is a stimulating di- 
aphoretic, useful in chronic rheumatism ; but Dr. Donald Monro, Dr. Russel, Dr. Fothergill, and several other 
eminent men, have described it as capable of curing obstinate ulcers, and severe affections of the skin. 
Off. Prep. — Decoctum Sarsaparillae Comp. L. 
Decoctum Daphne Mezerei. E. 
Mr. Burnett, in his Inaugural Address at the Medico-Botanical Society, observes: — 
“As long as the human race have been subject to disease, as long as pain has been an evil, so long must 
means of alleviation have been sought, and so long must medicines have been prescribed and used. Rude, 
indeed, were the early essays of our art, and long must they have continued rude: the morning twilight of 
physic has been for ages dawning into perfect day; comparatively, it is not long since men, ignorant alike 
of the indications to be observed, and of the instruments by which those indications might be fulfilled, pre- 
scribed scarlet clothes for fever, because they both were red, and saffron for jaundice on account of its yellow 
hue. 
Much lately has been done in the investigation of diseases, their causes, their symptoms, and their effects ; 
pathological anatomy has revealed many of the changes which various structures undergo, some of which 
