Jahrs idea of symptom in general was very different from Boenninghausens. To Boenninghausen this meant a symptom without modification, any symptom that had been produced in the part. To Jahr it meant the indefinite symptoms, those with nothing to pin them to anything; it meant also the symptoms having quite a number of different modifications. Jahrs particular symptoms are those modified in one particular.
Next consider the Hempel Repertory, being the third volume of the Symptom Codex published in 1853. When Charles J. Hempel had finished translating the Symptom Codex, he wanted a repertory of the symptoms contained in it. He did not believe in dividing or changing symptoms; they must be kept in the words of the prover, so he copied the symptoms as given, repeating each time the wording was different even with no change in meaning, e.g., “burning in stomach”, “burning pain in stomach”, “vertigo when rising from a chair”, “vertigo when rising from a seat”.
So Hempel thought mostly in particulars; the symptoms rarely have more than one remedy and with a change in just one word, but often no change in meaning, the remedy is different.
Calvin B. Knerr, son-in-law of Constantine Hering, published his Repertory to the Guiding Symptoms in 1896. He uses the same form throughout as found in the Guiding Symptoms, even to gathering the “relationships” at the end of the book and giving the remedies the four lines of grading. It makes a book that is bulky without being useful in every day study. As a reference repertory for comparative research it takes its own place.
Constantine Lippe published his Repertory to the More Characteristic Symptoms of the Materia Medica in 1880. He patterned it after the Allentown repertory of 1838 and added selections from the works of Boenninghausen, Adolph Lippe, Bell, H.N. Guernsey, Hering and Jahr. He follows the order of parts of the body as given in the Materia Medica Pura and ends with a section called Generalities with which all previous sections are to be compared. Like Boenninghausen he used the indented lines with dashes at the left to show the dependence of the indented symptom on the one above. In other words, the full line symptoms are headings or leading symptoms and those which are indented are modifications of them.
Unlike Boenninghausen, Lippe uses only two kinds of print to show grades of symptoms; Boenninghausen uses five.
Lippes Repertory is well put together, but poorly printed on poor paper. It is difficult because the great majority of rubrics have so very few symptoms that combinations of them lead nowhere. The book needed to be enlarged; students could not find enough in it.
James Tyler Kent, when he wanted to develop further the general symptoms with their modifications, began to write notes on remedies and symptoms into Lippes Repertory. When the little book was full of notes, he began on an interleaved copy. When this was full he made loose leaves useful for additions. The further development of Kents Repertory would best be told in the words of Dr. F.E. Gladwin who studied with him at t he time he complied it.
Dr. Kent held that all repertories were but compilations at best and the verified symptoms of a remedy were the property of all. This being the case, it would save much time if he began where the others left off. So to save time he asked his students to copy the symptoms and remedies already collected in the other repertories. Dr. Milton Powel and Dr. Mary Ives copied a goodly portion. Dr. Arthur Allen was given the Eye symptoms. He asked me to copy Thirst. He then gathered in the various copies and began to add his notes. In so doing he found such symptoms as “pain in head after meals”. To his mind this logically belonged under Head but his copy compelled him to put it in Complaints After Meals.
Things that logically belonged under Throat, were under Fauces, Pharynx and OEsophagus. Appetite, which logically belonged under Stomach and Taste, which logically belonged in Mouth, were in a chapter called Appetite and Taste. Eructation, Nausea and Vomiting which logically belonged in Stomach were in a chapter by themselves.
Dr. Kent thought it would be more logical and would save time in working a case, to group all of the kinds of pain together in each of the parts instead of arranging them alphabetically, that is, Aching pain under A, Biting pain under B, and so on as Lippe had done.
The more he worked upon the Repertory, the more he discovered that he couldnt follow Lippes form, and when he had a voluminous manuscript – it looked to me like a very large repertory already finished – he put it all aside and began again. All of his work to that date and the work of the students counted for naught excepting to show him that if he was to make a logical repertory from beginning to end, he must start at the beginning and rearrange.
In copying the symptoms in general from Boenninghausen he found that Boenninghausens symptoms in general did not follow the idea of the symptoms in general that had been followed by Jahr and Lippe. This taught him that he could not combine the rubrics of different repertories; he must verify every one that he copied to make sure that all of the remedies under his symptoms in general belonged there. This meant much sifting out, for he agreed with Lippe and Jahr in what a symptom in General should be. In this kind of work his students could not help, so the Kent Repertory as it stands today, represents years of work by one man.
In Dr. Kents mind location seemed of chief importance in finding a remedy, therefore all of the symptoms affecting a part were placed in alphabetical order in the chapter of that part. If it affected the whole, then it was placed in whichever chapter of a whole that it belonged. The arrangement of the chapters followed the order of parts that Hahnemann used in his provings.
The mental generals (controlling symptoms), with the exception of a few found in Sleep, are in the first chapter which is called Mind. The physical generals (controlling symptoms), those that can be predicated of the patient as a whole, are found in the chapters on Sleep, Chills, Fever and Generalities. The symptoms of the part run through the other chapters, each containing all the symptoms of that part.
In the Kent Repertory the general symptoms are the mental symptoms and those that affect the patient as a whole. These are found in five chapters but the symptoms in general are found in every book in the Repertory.
What general symptoms and symptoms in general are must be remembered in the analysis of the case for each must be taken to each in the Repertory. For instance, if the patient had headache worse in the morning on rising, if nausea and his rheumatism are worse when he first gets out of bed and his catarrhal symptoms are worse at the same time, he has a general aggravation in the morning on rising and it should be looked for in the chapter of Generalities.
The symptoms which make up this general are also placed under the parts in which they occur. If he has headache from bathing, from blowing the nose, from riding in a boat, etc., he has headache in general and it should be looked for under that rubric in the chapter on HEAD. If there had been several aggravations of the headache in the morning then it would have been headache in general in the morning and be looked for under that rubric. Knowing these things shortens the working of a case.
In each chapter throughout the book the arrangement of the symptoms is the same. In this arrangement the alphabetically first, symptom in general of the whole part stands first. This is followed by its modifications. If there are two of the part as the ear or eye, or if the part is divided as in forehead, the first modification is Side and the second modification is Time but if there is only one of the part and the part is not divided then in both cases the modifications by Time comes first; these are followed in alphabetical order by the modifications, by the conditions or circumstances under which they occur; when the symptom is modified by extending somewhere: extending, instead of being placed in its alphabetical order, is placed at the end of the alphabet after W. After all of the modifications of the part as a whole have been considered the parts of the part are taken up in like manner – symptoms in general first followed by its modifications by sides, time, circumstances, or conditions and extending.
Wherever the prover reported “boring in the head”, “burning in the stomach”, “shooting in the extremities”, etc., Dr. Kent said boring, burning, shooting, etc., are pains and should be classified as characteristic of pain instead of as as individual symptoms, therefore instead of placing boring as a symptom under B he placed it under the characteristic of pain. The characteristic of a symptom always follows the modifications by circumstances or conditions. Under the characteristic of pain in the head, boring pain comes first and it is treated just as pain in general was treated. This is followed by the different kinds of pain in alphabetical order each treated in the same way.
