Ambra grisea

Lecture XII — Nosodes — Psorinum and Ambra grisea

Ambra Grisea.

Ambra grisea is supposed to be a disease-product derived from the whale. It has a decided medicinal action, and, like all substances having a strong odor, it acts prominently upon the nervous system. Unless there are some nervous symptoms present in the case, you can hardly expect it to do good service. Ambra affects the cerebro-spinal nervous system, causing spasmodic symptoms here and there over the body. The muscles of the face twitch. It may also be used in sleeplessness arising from worriment of mind, as from business troubles. The patient may, in these cases, retire to bed feeling tolerably tired, yet as soon as his head touches the pillow he becomes wakeful. Such a case as that frequently yields to Ambra. This remedy is particularly indicated in thin, spare men, who have a decidedly nervous temperament, in whom nervousness predominates at the expense of nutrition. It is particularly indicated for the nervous complaints of old people, especially when the} 7 are forgetful and cannot remember the simplest facts. Vertigo comes on when the patient moves about, and the legs are unsteady; he totters when he walks. He has numbness of the feet and tingling in the limbs. The limbs go to sleep readily. These symptoms show you that there is either functional or organic weakness of the cerebro-spinal nervous system. We may use the drug in cases of softening of the brain and spinal cord, whether of senile origin or not.

There is another use we may make of Ambra grisea. It is a very quick-acting remedy. We may, therefore, give it in nervous diseases when there is defective reaction. We have already learned of a similar use of Psorinum; under the latter remedy, the defective reaction arises from constitutional taint. But under Ambra grisea it arises from nervous weakness. We find many such cases, particularly among men.

We may use Ambra for cough which is worse when strangers are in the room, or under any other circumstances which would tend to excite the nervous system. It is then a cough that is reflex from mental influences. In these cases, it is exactly similar to Phosphorus. Ambra is also indicated for cough, whether whooping-cough or not, when the cough is followed by eructations of wind from the stomach. There are not many remedies that will cure this symptom. Ambra grisea is one of the best; others are Sulphuric acid y Arnica } Sanguinaria and Veratrum album. Sometimes the eructations come during the cough, which is usually a very annoying and painful symptom. Here Ambra coincides with Arsenicum, Cimex, Lachesis and Angustura. We may use Ambra in asthma when it is accompanied by cardiac symptoms, oppression of breathing, and a feeling as of a load or lump in the left chest and fluttering in the region of the heart. This comes probably from a constrictive feeling there, not as if a hand were grasping the heart, but as if something in the left side of the chest were squeezed up in a lump. It is usually accompanied by palpitation of the heart.

Ambra grisea acts markedly on the female genital organs, its action here being important and quite unique. It causes atony of the uterus. The menses are regular as to time or they come a few days too early, but they are very profuse, and are accompanied by nosebleed and by an increase in the varicose veins on the legs, if such a condition is present. There is a discharge of blood between the periods. Any little excitement or extra effort, such as straining at stool, brings on a vaginal discharge of blood, showing how engorged is the uterus and how relaxed and weak the tissues. The leucorrhcea consists principally of mucus, which has a bluish or bluish-gray tinge to it. You may also use Ambra during the lying-in period, especially when constipation is severe. It is suited to those nervous women who are thin and scrawny-looking, who have frequent ineffectual urging to stool accompanied by great anxiety and restlessness, and inability to pass stool while the nurse or any one else is in the room.