Myrica cerifera. Wax Myrtle. Bayberry. Candle berry. N.O. Myricaceae. Tincture of fresh bark of root.
Clinical
Catarrh. Conjunctivitis. Heart, affections of. Jaundice. Leucorrhoea. Liver, affections of, Pharynx, affections of. Tendo- Achillis, pain in. Throat, sore, Urticaria.
Characteristics
According to Hale, though *Myrica was known to old botanically practitioners, it was Samuel Thomson, of *Lobelia fame, who established its reputation. Thomson had a crude pathology of his own which served him to some extent. One of his ideas was that the digestive tract was liable to become fouled with a copious mucous lining. This he called “canker:, and he stated of *Myrica that it “has the power of disengaging the thick, viscid secretions of the mucous membrane of the stomach.” *Myrica, says Hale, formed the chief ingredient in Thomson’s famous “Composition powder.” The provings confirm Thomson’s observation, in that *Myrica produced abundant secretion of tenacious mucus in the throat, difficult to detach. This may be considered one of the keynotes of the remedy. Profuse catarrhal discharges of old standing, of all kinds may require *Myrica, especially if offensive, tenacious, and difficult to detach. Leucorrhoea, bronchorrhoea, intestinal catarrh, pharyngeal catarrh, stomatitis. Hale says as a local application in diphtheria it rivals *Guaiacum. Perhaps allied to the catarrhal state of the intestinal tract is the liver disorder set up by the drug. These are the distinctive features: Aching pain in liver, fulness, drowsiness, despondency, dull, heavy headache, worse in morning, dirty, yellowish white of eyes, lids abnormally red, weakness, ash-coloured stools, slow pulse, pains under scapulae ( worse left), dirty yellow tongue, muscular soreness, aching in limbs, jaundice of all degrees. There is also the nasal obstruction, post-nasal catarrh which often accompanies disordered liver. It is in cases attended with jaundice that *Myrica has had the greatest success, cases of black jaundice having been cured with it, and it meet the itching, of jaundice as well. Urticaria is not infrequently found associated with liver affections, and Douglass cured with it this case (*Clinique, xxi. 108. quoting *Hahn. *Advocate): Miss O., 18, complained of itching and stinging on face, neck, right forearm and leg. Sensation as if insects crawling on face, must brush them away. Skin yellowish, Tongue, thickly coated yellow. Felt sick all over and rather irritable. *Myrica 6x every two hours improved at once and cured in ten days. Burnett has used *Myrica with excellent effect When in attended with jaundice. He has given material doses. It has generally been given in the lower attenuations. *Myrica has also an action on the heart, and is thus closely related to *Digitalis in several points. There are sharp pains about the heart with increased, audible pulsations, but slow pulse. The heart pains are worse lying on left side. Pains in left chest and under scapulae (especially left), and pain in middle lobe of right lung. The symptoms are: worse By warmth of bed, worse after sleep, worse in morning, by motion. Worse After breakfast, better in open air.
Relations
*Compare: In tenacious secretions, Kali-bi., Hydrast. Jaundice, light-coloured stools, slow pulse, Digitalis (Digitalis has pulse *irregular as well as slow, the tongue of Digitalis has not the thick, tenacious coat of Myrica). Liver, Berberis, Chelidonium, Chim., Podophyllum, Hepar, Mercurius, Cholest., Hydrast. Urticaria and liver disorder, Ast. fl. Sore all over, Baptisia Leucorrhoea, Hydrast. Pain through left chest to scapula, Therid., Illic., Pix.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Great despondency, dejected, irritable. Cannot concentrate mind on any subject. Dull, drowsy state. Exhilaration, then depression and pressure about head, exhilaration, then excitement preventing sleep, with restlessness.
Head
Vertigo, with dulness and drowsiness, (during lectures) with rush of blood to head and face, on stooping, with nausea. Awakens with pain in forehead, temples, and small of back, better in open air. Dull, heavy feeling over and in eyes. Throbbing: of arteries in the head, and in face with fulness, in superficial veins on waking. Empty feeling in head.
Eyes
Eyes congested and yellow. Eyes feel dull and heavy, also on awaking. Eyes burn and tire easily when reading, lids heavy. Dirty, dingy, yellowish sclerotics, lids abnormally red. Smarting in left conjunctiva, than pain in right ball. Smarting in eyes, feeling of sand in them, difficulty in closing lids. Quivering sensation in left upper lid. Pain in right brow.
Ears
Pain in back of left ear. Ringing in ears, in left.
Nose
Pain in nose, in left side of nose of nose, shifting to left axilla, where it was sharp and lancinating. Coryza. Post-nasal catarrh.
Face
Yellow colour of face and neck, jaundice. Fulness, with heat and throbbing, esp., after being out in open air. Pressure in malar bones. Sharp, darting pain in right articulation of jaw.
Mouth
Breath offensive. Sweetish taste about palate. Thick, yellowish, dark, dry, and crusty coating on tongue, rendering it almost immovable. Tongue dirty yellow. Foul, bad taste, cannot eat because of it, bitter, nauseous taste. Adhesive coating over buccal membrane, dry, scaly crusts on roof of mouth, that water scarcely moistens or dissolves. Mouth dry, thirst, water relieves only partially for awhile.
Throat
Semi-lancinating pain near right tonsil in afternoon. Excruciating feeling in posterior nares, as from a fresh cold. Constriction, causing constant need to swallow. Swollen feeling inside in morning. Stringy mucus in throat, detached with difficulty. Throat and nasal organs filled with an offensive, tenacious mucus, detached with difficulty. Pharynx dry, sore, as if it would crack, impeding and finally obstructing, deglutition. Slimy, glutinous frothy mucus in pharynx, even gargling scarcely detaches it, causes disgusting taste, prevents eating.
Stomach
Hunger, yet full feeling, as after a hasty meal. Unnatural hunger, then indigestion, then jaundice. Loss of appetite, loathing of food, but desire for acids. Fulness and pressure, or weak, sinking feeling in stomach. Acidity at 8.30 a.m. Burning with bitter, nauseous sensation in fauces, the burning changing into griping from left epigastrium in a straight line to left of navel. Heartburn, with increase of saliva, which has to be expectorated frequently.
Abdomen
Dull pain in region of liver, fulness, drowsiness, debility, mushy, clay-coloured stools, jaundice. Griping pains, rumbling, urging to stool, passing only flatus. Weak, faint feeling, as if diarrhoea would ensure. Offensive flatus when walking. Pain in umbilical region: after breakfast, in a spot in umbilical region an hour after dinner, with accumulation of flatus, heavy. Rumbling above umbilicus. Rumbling in umbilical region, with griping.
Stool
Passing of much offensive flatus. Loose stools, mushy, with tenesmus and cramp-like sensation in umbilical region. Stools light yellow, mushy, clay-coloured, jaundice. Constipation.
Urinary Organs
Urine beer-coloured, with yellowish froth, pinkish-brown sediment, scanty. Micturition difficult, bladder seemed to lack contractive, expelling power. Urine increased, and limpid.
Male Sexual Organs
Desire lost. Chronic gonorrhoea.
Female Sexual Organs
Leucorrhoea excoriating, fetid, thick, yellowish.
Respiratory Organs
Smarting in larynx and trachea. Tickling cough which has troubled him on lying down at night was better in morning.
Chest
Pain: in left chest, in middle lobe of right lung, in left lung at 8 p.m. Constriction of chest at night when lying on left side, with audible beating of heart.
Heart and Pulse
Sharp pain in region of heat. Stinging, cramp-like sensation to left of praecordia and under ribs. Heart’s impulse increased, but pulse sixty. Impulse increased, pulsation audible, with constriction in chest on lying on left side. Pulse feeble, irregular.
Neck and Back
Dull aching in back and head, dragging, lassitude. Pain in nape at 2 p.m., in neck at 7 a.m., worse nape, with stiffness, _ Pain under scapula, under left scapula at 11. p.m., in left scapula and arm. extending to end of little finger. Sharp, plunging pain in region of left kidney. Pain in lumbar region with general chilliness on going outdoors, heavy, dragging in morning on waking, also till afternoon.
Upper Limbs
Sharp lancinations in left axilla. Tearing in left arm, worse upper arm, sometimes extending to forearm, with darting pain in middle and ring fingers. Lame feeling in right arm, worse about wrist, with heaviness. Pain in left upper arm at 8.45 a.m., in right third and little fingers at 9 a.m.
Lower Limbs
Pain at 7 a.m., centring in muscular parts above knees, also soreness and occasional darting pains. Sharp shooting in right thigh, then in left thigh, then pain in left shoulder. Drawing pain in muscles above knee at night. Piercing pain in inner side of left knee. Pain from knee down at 12.50 p.m., with coldness of
lower limbs, contractive, in middle of leg, a little outside of outer edge of tibia, worse motion, occasionally changing to burning pain, with soreness to touch. Pain in calves, with trembling, so that walking is unpleasant, pain worse left Pain in left tendo-Achillis, worse touch and motion, with soreness, in hollow of right foot. Bruised pain in left heel.