Maurice Worcester Turner The word repertory means to find again, and it is, the dictionary tells us, an index or treasury in which things are disposed in an orderly manner, so they can be easily found. This is all that the first repertories of the homoeopathic materia medica were-indices or reference books-and while they were needed in the early days of Homoeopathy, we need them much more on account of the greatly increased size of the materia medica.
Success with the repertory depends upon the ability of the physician “to take the case” properly and make correct deductions therefrom. The repertory should not be looked upon as necessarily a time saver at first, but rather as an aid to accuracy, the economy of time coming in the later management of the case, as a result of the complete primary study, and ultimately in its more rapid cure.
The predominant mental symptom was hopelessness as to her health, as to condition of her heart etc., though not worried; weakness marked, increased by mental or physical effort; tearful: desire for open air which relieved; exhaustion from talking; excitement upset her; better going without food; diarrhoea more or less, worst at night, worse from acids; at times globus hystericus, and empty sensation in stomach and abdomen.
What can be made of this symptoms-complex, much of which consists of ordinary symptoms, with no uncommon characteristics or peculiar ones? Another thing to be noticed is the absence of mental symptoms, said to be the sine que non of a successful repertorial case case-study.
Generally a concordance is to be used alone, taking, as the first rubric, the one which covers the “part affected.” Thus if it be a mental case “Mind” is used first, or if the part be elsewhere in the body then the rubric of “Localities” is first taken, and so on. I use the rubric headings, in reference, as given in the Allen Boenninghausen.