REVAMPING THE REPERTORY


At the back of the first volume would be a list of synonyms, not only in English but also in French and German and possibly in Spanish. This would make the work available internationally. A list of correct remedy names with pronunciation marks and carefully standardized abbreviations should be added, and a brief section on remedy relationships appended.


The greatest single book in homoeopathy is, perhaps, kents Repertory, which, to the ever increasing number of physicians who use the Kent method of repertorizing, is absolutely indispensable. Every physician needs this mammoth index, this concordance of our craft, not only to work out chronic cases in his rare hours of leisure, if any, but also for immediate reference at the bedside in acute, desperate and obscure cases. The student and the novice especially need it constantly, although no master mind is retentive enough to dispense with it entirely.

Yet, how unwieldy a book it is! Five pounds in weight, ten and a quarter by seven by two and a quarter inches in size and costing twenty-five dollars! These disadvantages in format, harassing as they are, are as nothing compared to the obstacles to swift and precise prescribing in the text itself. For the sake of those who are not thoroughly familiar with the kent Repertory I will explain its present plan.

1. MIND, being the innermost and most important stands first.

2. VERTIGO, unreasonably enough, comes next.

3. HEAD, which includes scalp, follows.

4. EYE and VISION.

5. EAR and HEARING.

6. NOSE.

7. FACE, including lips, salivary glands and sinuses.

8. MOUTH, including tongue, taste and speech.

9. TEETH.

10. THROAT, including uvula, tonsils, oesophagus, but not larynx.

11. EXTERNAL THROAT, including thyroid, glands, torticollis.

12. STOMACH, including desires and aversions to food but not food aggravations. Thirst in general is found here.

13. ABDOMEN, including groins, hernia, liver, dysmenorrhoea (also found under GENITALIA, FEMALE).

14. RECTUM, including constipation, and diarrhoea.

15. STOOL.

16. URINARY ORGANS: Bladder, including urination; kidneys; prostate gland; urethra; urine.

17. GENITALIA: Male; female (menses are also found under generals).

18. LARYNX and TRACHEA, including throat-pit and voice.

19. RESPIRATION.

20. COUGH.

21. EXPECTORATION.

22. CHEST, including heart, lungs, breast and axillae.

23. BACK, including cervical region and spine.

24. EXTREMITIES.

25. SLEEP, including dreams.

26. CHILL.

27. FEVER.

28. PERSPIRATION.

29. SKIN.

30. GENERALITIES, including physical generals; pathology; convulsions; fainting; aggravations or ameliorations from food; certain sensations; types of pain, direction of pain, pain in certain tissues, such as bones, cartilages, glands muscles, periosteum; pulse; aggravations before, during or after sleep, menses, coition, etc.

Let us enumerate a few of the obstacles:

1. Many rubrics are out of place from the point of view of common sense. For instance, things pertaining to the neck are found both under external throat and under back; pulse is under generals instead of being with heart under chest; sinuses are divided between head, face and nose; salivary glands are found under face; and lips are also under instead of under mouth. These are matters of anatomical classification which should be simplified and corrected. There is no section for the circulatory system, the glandular or lymphatic system, nor for the nervous system.

2. Even under the existing arrangement certain headings are misplaced; Awkwardness under generals when it is a mental; desires and aversions to food under stomach when they should be under generals for they indicate the whole patient; and the type of menses, so characteristic of the whole person, should be under generals instead of under female genitalia as at present. These, of course, are instead are only a few examples.

3. Pathological and diagnostic headings and many objective symptoms are now sprinkled through the book. These should be collected, classified and placed in a special section by themselves.

4. Many common symptoms, such as vomiting, restlessness, sadness, etc., have such large rubrics as to be practically useless. Moreover they consume much space. These should either be deleted or put in at the head of the particulars related to them, with only the third or highest degree remedies given.

5. Repetitions abound. These are often due to the use of synonyms in different places with somewhat different remedies. These could either be cross referenced or combined under the most usual synonym, or grouped under the most usual heading, the other symptoms as sub-headings and the varying remedy rubrics distinct under each. By this last method one does not blur the shades of meaning and one provokes discrimination on the physicians part. For example, haughty, insolent, contemptuous, defiant, scornful, arrogant. dictatorial, presumptuous, domineering, dogmatic, etc.

6. The Repertory is based on only about 540 remedies. This should, of course, be brought up to date, but that is an herculean task, not really within the scope of an abridgement and rearrangement of the present Repertory. There are some important remedies, however, which should be added.

7. Confusion arises in the mind of the novice until it is realized that where nothing is mentioned after the heading of the rubric it often means “aggravated from”. For instance, under GENERALITIES, FASTING, is meant “aggravated while fasting”. The ameliorations are always mentioned and the aggravations sometimes are, which makes it a bit confusing.

8. Many rubrics could with profit be omitted from an abridged version of the Repertory to be carried in ones bag. For example, such a rubric as cheerfulness. It is the abnormalities of cheerfulness that are noteworthy, such as over-exuberance which might be classed as hilarity, or too little cheerfulness which should come under depression.

9. Last, but by no means least, comes the lack of an index and of cross references. These are essential for proper use of the Repertory. At present the physician has to write in the page numbers of the cross references for himself.

These are some of the main criticisms but there are many others. Every systematic physician would have his own preference as to arrangement, his own evaluation of the meaning of words, especially in the section on mind, and his own ideas of what would constitute a workable repertory.

In proposing the following schema for an abridged working Repertory we proceed from the premise that a novice taking up a difficult new book should find it arranged in a logical and common sense order which, while true to the best of homoeopathy, should be consonant with current medical teaching. Our fundamental thesis is the arrangement of our new Repertory according to the schema of the value of symptoms, emphasizing those which pertain to the patient as an individual personality.

This implies that the mental generals come first, the physical generals next, and the pathological generals third as indicative of the tendency of the constitution. Immediately after these and before the details of any systems or organs should come the other general sections such as vertigo, sleep, chill, fever and perspiration. Ideally “the strange, rare and peculiar”, characteristic particulars should come next in a separate section. It may seem insuperably difficult to window these out from the chaff of common symptoms but at least a very helpful and suggestive “keynote” section of these could be compiled.

In this first volume, including the above, should appear an index to the new Repertory with certain essential cross references. All of the above we feel should constitute volume 1. Volume 2 would then be devoted to the symptoms of the separate systems, anatomical regions and organs, with the modalities, the sensations, etc., separated. This second volume would then be of special use in acute work and the first volume would almost be sufficient for the working of a chronic case, at least in the first stage which is based on the generals.

These two volumes should be on bible paper, thin and tough, about six by four inches, with a tough, black, limp leather binding much like Boerickes Materia Medica with Repertory, which stands hard usage, and can be carried in the bag or pocket. The price of the two volumes should not exceed ten dollars. At the back of the first volume would be a list of synonyms, not only in English but also in French and German and possibly in Spanish. This would make the work available internationally. A list of correct remedy names with pronunciation marks and carefully standardized abbreviations should be added, and a brief section on remedy relationships appended.

It is impossible in the scope of this paper to give the complete details even as far as already worked out, but this tentative schema is offered.

1. MIND OR MENTAL GENERALS.

a. The WILL which includes the loves, hates, emotions, suicidal thoughts,loathing of life,lasciviousness,revulsion to sex, sexual perversions, fears, homicidal tendencies, jealousy, suspicion, greed, obstinacy, depression, loquacity, impatience, conscientiousness, etc., dreams, (which, though highly indicative of the patients mental state, are now listed under sleep), desire or aversion to company, family, friends, etc. Under this heading should come ailments from emotions, now scattered throughout the book, and aversions, similarly dispersed.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard
Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard (1896-1967) was born in New York City and later studied with Pierre Schmidt. She subsequently opened a practice in Boston. In 1945 she served as president of the International Hahnemannian Association. From 1959-1961 served at the first woman president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. She also was Editor of the 'Homoeopathic Recorder' the 'Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy' and taught at the AFH postgraduate homeopathic school. She authored A Homeopathy As Art and Science, which included A Brief Study Course in Homeopathy.