Ambra grisea
Animal
Ambra Grisea is suited to thin, scrawny, nervous patients — especially excitable children and aged persons whose all functions are impaired. It is a great remedy for those weakened by age or overwork who are anaemic and sleepless, presenting with one-sided complaints, extreme bashfulness, and hypersensitivity to music and the presence of strangers.
Key symptoms
- Extreme nervous hypersensitiveness with external numbness of the whole body in the morning
- Intensely shy, blushes easily; cannot do anything in the presence of others
- Music causes weeping and aggravates symptoms
- Senile dizziness with tearing pain in the upper half of the brain
- Convulsive cough with eructations
- Distension of stomach and abdomen after midnight
- Numbness of single parts, especially fingers and arms
- One-sided complaints; time passes very slowly
- Restless, loquacious, with despair and loathing of life
Worse (aggravation)
- Music
- Presence of other people
- Morning (weakness, numbness, difficult thinking in the aged)
- After midnight (distension of stomach and abdomen)
Ambergis-A Morbid Secretion of the Whale
Suitable to excitable, nervous children and thin, nervous patients. Extreme nervous hypersensitiveness. External numbness of whole body in the morning and weakness. Nervous bilious temperament. Thin, scrawny women. Adapted to hysterical subjects, or those suffering from spinal irritation, with convulsive cough, eructation, etc. Also for patients weakened by age or overwork, who are anæmic and sleepless. Great remedy for the aged, with impairment of all functions, weakness, coldness and numbness, usually of single parts, fingers, arms, etc. One-sided complaints call for it. Music aggravates symptoms. Ebullitions and pulsations after walking in open air. One-sided complaints.
Mind
Dread of people, and desire to be alone. Cannot do anything in presence of others. Intensely shy, blushes easily. Music causes weeping. Despair, loathing of life. Fantastic illusions. Bashful. Loss of love of life. Restless, excited, very loquacious. Time passes slowly. Thinking, difficult in the morning with old people. Dwells upon unpleasant things.
Head
Slow comprehension. Vertigo, with weakness in head and stomach. Pressure on front part of head with mental depression. Tearing pain in upper half of brain. Senile dizziness. Rush of blood to head, when listening to music. Hearing impaired. Epistaxis, especially in the morning. Profuse bleeding from teeth. Hair falls out.
Stomach
Eructations, with violent, convulsive cough. Acid eructations, like heartburn. Distention of stomach and abdomen after midnight. Sensation of coldness in abdomen.
Urinary
Pain in bladder and rectum at the same time. Burning in orifice of urethra and anus. Feeling in urethra as if a few drops passed out. Burning and itching in urethra while urinating. Urine turbid, even during emission forming a brown sediment.
Female
Nymphomania, Itching of pudendum, with soreness and swelling. Menses too early. Profuse, bluish leucorrhœa. Worse at night. Discharge of blood between periods, at every little accident.
Male
Voluptuous itching of scrotum. Parts externally numb; burn internally. Violent erections without voluptuous sensations.
Respiratory
Asthmatic breathing with eructation of gas. Nervous, spasmodic cough, with hoarseness and eructation, on waking in morning; worse in presence of people. Tickling in throat, larynx and trachea, chest oppressed, gets out of breath when coughing. Hollow, spasmodic, barking cough, coming from deep in chest. Choking when hawking up phlegm.
Heart
Palpitation, with pressure in chest as from a lump lodged there, or as if chest was obstructed. Conscious of the pulse. Palpitation in open air with pale face.
Sleep
Cannot sleep from worry; must get up. Anxious dreams. Coldness of body and twitching of limbs, during sleep.
Skin
Itching and soreness, especially around genitals. Numbness of skin. Arms "go to sleep".
Extremities
Cramps in hands and fingers, worse grasping anything. Cramps in legs.
Modalities
Worse, music; presence of strangers; from any unusual thing; morning, warm room. Better, slow motion in open air; lying on painful part; cold drinks.
Relationship
Do not confound with Amber-Succinum q v. Moschus frequently follows advantageously. Compare: Oleum succinum (hiccough). Sumbul; Castor; Asaf; Crocus; Lilium.
Dose
Second and third potencies; may be repeated with advantage.
Premature old age
On looking over this remedy as a whole it will appear to you that you have been studying the characteristics of one prematurelyold.
You will often see symptoms coming on in one at fifty years of age that should appear at eighty, and after studying this remedy you will see that the same aspect is presented, a premature old age.
We recognize trembling and a peculiar kind of feebleness that cannot be described by any expression but senility; it is not the confusion of mind belonging to sickness, but the peculiar state we recognize in old people, in declining life; trembling and tottering and a dreamy state of mind with forgetfulness.
Ambergris. Most probably a morbid product found in the Sperm Whale or floating in the sea. (Not to be confounded with Amber-Succinum.) Trituration and tincture.
Clinical
Anus, irritation of. Asthma. Bashfulness. Brain, softening of. Cardiac asthma. Convulsions. Cough. Deafness. Emaciation. Epistaxis. Face, pimples on. Hysteria. Jaundice. Menstrual irregularity. Music, intolerance of. Nervousness. Nymphomania. Pruritus vulvæ. Puerperal convulsions. Ranula. Reaction defective. Spleen, pain in. Tympanites.
Characteristics
Ambra produces faintness (Moschus), nervousness, jerks, and twitches. Reflex action is increased. The patient has an embarrassed air; the bashful state is very characteristic in certain connections. Embarrassed in company. Cough worse when many people are present. As if in a dream. Forgetful. There is defective reaction in nervous patients. Sensation of icy coldness in abdomen. The pelvic organs are painfully influenced. There is voluptuous itching on the scrotum and some rawness below …
Ambergris. (A Nosode.)
For children, especially young girls who are excitable, nervous and weak; nervous affections of old people, nerves "worn out.". Lean, thin, emaciated persons who take cold easily. Great sadness, sits for days, weeping. After business embarrassments, unable to sleep, must get up (Act., Sep.). Ranula with fetid breath (Thuja). Sensation of coldness in abdomen (Cal.). The presence of others, even the nurse, is unbearable during stool; frequent, ineffectual desire, which makes her anxious. Discharge of blood between periods, at every little accident - a long walk, after very hard stool, etc. Leucorrhoea; thick, bluish-white mucus, especially or only at night (Caust., Mer., Nit. ac.). Violent cough in spasmodic paroxysyms, with eructations and hoarseness; worse talking or reading aloud (Dros., Phos.); evening without, morning with expectoration (Hyos.); whooping cough, but without crowing inspiration.
Abdomen
Sense of coldness in the abdomen.
Female Sexual Organs
Discharge of blood between the periods (Cact.), every little accident, as after a walk, or hard stool.
Respiratory Organs
Spasmodic cough with frequent eructation of gas. Especially in old people.
Phatak's chapter on Ambra grisea is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
