As you have taken your symptoms in the strict order of their importance according to the Kentian schema your first two or three symptoms should appear in the remedies that come,high, and where they do not the remedy should be looked on with suspicion. It is to be remembered that certain remedies, like Sulph., Calc., Nux., Puls., etc., almost always come out high numerically because they gave been so thoroughly proved and unless the beginner discounts this and bases his final judgment on materia medica and especially the mentals and type of the patient he will prescribe these well proved poly crests too often.
Conversely, it must not be forgotten that some remedies, like Tub., have but a fragmentary part of their proving in the repertory,and that only a little more than 500 remedies are mentioned in the Repertory,. and very few of the nosodes and double salts are adequately stressed. When the remedies have been reduced numerically to from three to give, these must be read in the Materia medicas,especially their MENTALS ,and the original case as taken reviewed and competed to peach of the remedies. The miasmatic relationships of the patient and of the remedies that come out high must be considered.
For future reference in treating the case in acute as well as chronic prescribing, a list should be made on the chart of the constitutional remedies which come high, of the nosodes which most nearly apply,and of the acute remedies ranking highest. These, or, complements of these will often be found to fit any illness of that patient in the future, unless an epidemic remedy be called for.
Ideally, on the repertorizing record each symptom should be stated in the words of the patient in the symptoms couldnt restated in the exactly corresponding rubric in the rubric column,and the page where this is found after it. There are repertorizing sheets These are obtainable from the American Foundation of Homoeopathy, 38 Elizabeth Street, Derby, Conn.,, for a reasonable sum. on graph paper with the main remedies printed on, numbered places of writing in symptoms, etc., which are a great convenience and a time saver.
THE BOENNINGHAUSEN REPERTORY; ITS CONSTRUCTION.
Boenninghausens Therapeutic Pocket Book, one of the earliest repertories, is based largely on Hahnemanns Materia Medica Pura and the idea of it was approved by Hahnemann himself. The book falls into seven distinct parts. Although each of these is complete in itself, “yet each one gives but one portion of a symptom, which can be completed only in one or several other parts.” For example,the seat of pain is found in the second section according to timed or circumstances in the sixth,and the necessary concomitants in the various sections.
The seven sections are: I The Mind and Disposition: 2. Parts of the Body and Organs 2. Sensations and Complaints in alphabetical order, in general and then specially, of the glands, of he bones, and of the skin and exterior parts: 4.Sleep and Dreams: 5. Fevers with Chill,Circulation and Sweat(the 2nd, 4th and 5th sections have concomitants);6. Aggravations and Ameliorations from time and circumstances: 7. RElationship of Remedies. In section seven under each drug the previous section headings, I through 6,are given and under each the remedies applying in that section which are related to the drug in question.
At the end of each drug is given a list of other related remedies and the antidotes.
THE BOENNINGHAUSEN REPERTORY; ITS USE.
This Repertory is based in GENERAL;S even much more than the Kent. The rubrics in the different sections dealing with the different aspects of one symptoms are used to eliminate all remedies but such as run through them all. This is a swifter, easier method than the Kent, but too general, and a great many symptoms cannot be found in it at all. Also there are very few rubrics under MIND, only seven pages out of 482. Bogers General Analysis is based on this repertory and his unique method of working cases by it is also deserving of study.
THE BOERICKE REPERTORY.
The Kent Repertory in its present form is unwieldy for the physician to carry with him to the bed side. Neither the BOENNINGHAUSEN nor Kent repertories have any materia medica. Two books which combine Materia medica and repertory are handy in the pocket or medical bag. One of these is Bogers Synoptic Key, of which his General Analysis is an abridged form,and the other is Boerickes Materia Medica with Repertory. the Boericke Repertory resembles the Kent rather than the Boenninghausen but boericke has reclassified some for the anatomical section.
For instance, vertigo appears under HEAD; census are grouped together under NOSE; lips are under MOUTH instead of FACE; tongue has a section to itself as have gums; esophagus is under THROAT instead of STOMACH; foods that disagree are in STOMACH with the cravings and aversions; rectum and stool are under ABDOMEN; all the URINARY SYSTEM is together under that heading; breasts are rightly classed under the FEMALE SEXUAL SYSTEM;there is an admirable section on PREGNANCY, LABOR and LACTATION; after GENITALIA comes the section on the CIRCULATORY SYSTEM including pulse; then comes the LOCOMOTOR SYSTEM including extremities,gait, neck,inflammatory rheumatism and arthritis,back, and axilla; then comes RESPIRATORY SYSTEM, including lungs, cough, expectoration, larynx,. voice and respiration, larynx, voice and respiration;following this is the SKIN.
The FEVER section includes chill and sweat,the exanthems and various fevers such as influenza, typhoid, malaria, etc. The NERVOUS SYSTEM follows and includes epilepsy, paralysis,sleep,dreams, weakness,convulsions, goitre, sea- sickness, neuralgia, sciatica, spine, meningitis,etc. The GENERALITIES section is much reduced and contains mainly diseases tissues,poisoning,suppressions (under CHECKED discharges), glandular affections including mumps, goitre a very interesting section on COMPLAINTS from winds,damp places, sudden,gradual,injuries, prophylactics,and tumors. The section has been relieved of much misplaced matter and has added to it a great deal of interesting and valuable material. The last section is MODALITIES,first aggravations and then ameliorations and time under these appears in alphabetics order under morning, night periodicity, etc., instead of altogether at the beginning o the section as in Kent.
Under all extensive heading such as HEADACHE, appear definite captions in the following order; Cause, Type, Location,Character of Pain, Concomitants, Modalities, i.e., Aggravations and Ameliorations.
The book is a clinical rather than a symptomatological index and has many technical terms as main headings., A tremendous number of remedies sure given in the materia medica section,and well given,with plentiful mentals. Owing to its small size a great many symptoms have had to be omitted from the repertory. Its pretensions are not great but its usefulness within its sphere is tremendous.
This gives the beginner a birds eye view of three of the most usable general repertoires. It is strongly advised that every student master the Kent method, as if will reward familiarity more than any other. To the advanced student it should be added that navy strange and peculiar symptoms can not be found in those three repertories and must be searched for in Gentrys Concordance, Knerrs Repertory, Lippe, Jahr, or some of the Special repertories.
Card repertories have not been mentioned. There is one by Field, based largely on the Kent, but inaccurate. It is useful for hurried acute prescribing in the office. A new card repertory, exactly following Kent, is now under construction by the Doctors Pulford of Toledo, Phil., Bogers cards closely follow his Synoptic Key.
These different methods of repertorizing will appeal to different types of minds and will also be suitable for different types of cases, the Boger method suiting those with much pathology and few other symptoms; the Kent method suiting those4 with marked mentals and an intricate anamnesis; the Boenninghausen suiting conditions with acute pains and clear cut modalities, cases repertory study we would reiterate, STUDY THE KENT METHOD, FIRST, LAST, AND ALL THE TIME.
BOSTON, MASS.
This theory of the specific tension of the ultimate action, when treated by the Hahnemann method of trituration and succession seems to us the crowning glory of our system. That the; last possible sub division of he material mass contains its proper proportion of the specific qualities which gave a character intensified, and while under this tension may communicate itself to substances formerly foreign to it, and this too with an immediateness which is almost electrical; and thus the specific life of a man may be directly reached by the specific quality of a remedy; all these seem to us revelations- American Homoeopathic Review, 1859.
Here comes the fact. Away with all theorizing and explanations. It is a positive truth,one which admits of no question in the minds of candid experimenters,that drugs which have passed through the process of frictionization according to the Hahnemannian plan., which involves the necessity of dilution and attenuation, do possess the same specific powers as when in crude mass. It is also perfectly well settled that these specific properties are really intensified by this process-ROGER G.PERKINS, M.D., 1859.
