An Overview of Repertories for UG and PG Students

Dr. D.P. Rastogi is considered as Master of Repertory. He has been teaching Repertory and Materia Medica to undergraduates and postgraduates since 1975. He was appointed as Principal of Nehru Homeopathic Medical College, New Delhi and has served the institute for tenure of 9 years (1975-1984) and as the Director of Central Council of Research in Homoeopathy for 15 year (1984-1999). He is appointed as professor Emiritus at Homoeopathic Medical College, Beed, Marathwada University Aurangabad. He has been teaching repertory to postgraduate colleges in the country and is serving as guide and examiner for Postgraduate courses in several Universities. Boenninghausen'’s Academy for Classical Homeopathy in Gurgaon to promote teaching of Boenninghausen's Repertories was established by him. His other great works include : Golden Tips by Master, Some Case Reports, Use of Indigeneous and other Remedies in Homeopathy as Home Remedies. He is a well Known international speaker for his work on repertory and use of rare remedies. Recently he has been awarded with 'Life Time Achievement Award' by Homeopathic Medical Association of India.

This is indeed gratifying to note that this small book has served the purpose for which it was written. It has been of great help to students preparing for examination. I have tried to incorporate more information about repertories in this edition besides updating the write-ups of the earlier edition with current information. I hope it will prove of immense benefit to students.

I would like to thank both my students Dr. Suresh Barik and Dr. Arindam Dutta for assisting me in adding material in clinical repertories, Bonninghausen’s concordances and selected clinical rubrics in BBCR. I would also like to thank Dr. Harpreet Kaur for carefully checking the manuscript. Iam sure these additions would interest the readers to use BTPB and BBCR more profitably.

The totality of symptoms in contrast to pathology plays the key role in understanding a drug or patient in homeopathy. The selection of the simillimum from vast symptomatology of materia medica always demands some way of differentiating or sorting out similar looking drugs, and repertorization is one such comprehensive, scientific and precise tool of accomplishing this.

The root of repertory idea can be traced to as early as 1816 to the preamble of Materia Medica Pura by Hahnemann himself who wrote, "For the convenience of treatment, we require merely to jot down after each symptom all the medicines which can produce such a symptom with tolerable accuracy, expressing them by a few letters (abbreviations) and also to bear in mind the circumstances under which they occur, they have a determining influence on our choice, and proceed in the same way with all the other symptoms, noting by which medicine each 1s excited from the list so prepared we shall be able to perceive which among the medicines homeopathically covers most of the symptoms present, especially the most peculiar and characteristic ones and this is the remedy sought for." This laid the foundation of the present day repertories.

From the first repertory Fragmenta De Viribus Medica Mentorum Positivis Sive in Sano Corpore Humano Observatis published in 1805 by Hahnemann himself, the profession has seen a large number of repertories and the search for an ideal and complete repertory will go on unabated in future. The credit for publishing the first repertory goes to von Boenninghausen. Boenninghausen published Repertory of the _ Antipsorics in 1832 with a preface by the master (second edition in 1833). Hahnemann himself in his practice used this repertory. In the preface to the second edition, Boenninghausen says about undertaking a rigorous revision of the first edition. This shows his remarkable accuracy.

In 1835, Boenninghausen’s Repertory of Medicines Which are Not-Antipsorics and in 1836 An Attempt at Showing the Relative Kinship of Homeopathic Medicines was published. All these publications were combined to form his masterpiece the Therapeutic Pocket Book (TPB) which was published in 1846 in German. This became the standard reference work used by most American Homeopaths including Stuart Close, Carroll Dunham, H.N. Guernsey and T.F. Allen. Even Dr. Kent used this for 20 years.

Recently this book has come in to great use and new editions have appeared in German and English by Dr. Gypser and Dimitriadis that are based on the original ‘Therapeutisches Taschenbuch’, These editions are praiseworthy as they are based on the original book rather than on the translations made by people like A.H. Okie, C.J. Hempel and J. Laurie. Besides it has taken care to correct T.F. Allen’s error in respect of the 5 gradations (ranks) of remedies instead of Bonninghausen’s 4. The number of remedies added to the original copy of Boenninghausen by Dr. T.F. Allen have been deleted leaving behind only 125 remedies as these were not found consistent with Boenninghausen’s plan. The English edition has been done by G. Dimitriadis, Sydney in the year 2000 and is known as The Boenninghausen Repertory (TBR).

In 1900, Cyrus Maxwell Boger made a new translation of the Antipsoric Remedies into English. It contained 232 pages. This repertory later grew into Boger Boenninghausen’s Characteristics and Repertory and was published in 1905. He made so many additions and added new rubrics that its final size was 1040 pages an almost five fold increase. Dr. Boger continued to enhance it until his death in 1935.