REPERTORIZING.
As no one person can carry all the symptom of all the remedies in his mind a concordance of index is needed. We term a symptoms index a repertory. There are about half a hundred of these, general or special, based on different symptoms of studying the case. The two most vital to know are the basic ones of the two main methods, the Kent Repertory and the Boenninghausen.
THE KENT REPERTORY : ITS CONSTRUCTION.
The Kent Repertory is a compilation of materia medica, certain prior repertories, such as Lippes and clinical symptoms verified. In order to successfully search in the Kent Repertory for the symptoms of your case as evaluated in accordance with our last lecture you must be thoroughly familiar with the plan of the book, its rationale, and also its inconsistencies. The plan of the book is to work from generals to particulars, a general rubric first in most instance.
The book is based on anatomical divisions, (see Table of Contents, p. VII), with certain exceptions such as the first section on Mind ; the last one, Generalities ; discharge, such as Stool, Sweat, Urine and Expectoration, which appear as separate sections next to the anatomical region producing them ; and certain general condition, such as Vertigo, Cough, Sleep, Chill and Fever, which are also separate.
Under such anatomical section the rubrics run in alphabetical order regardless of whether they are pathology, sensations, modalities, or objective symptoms (such as “bores head in pillow”, page 108).
Each such main heading is followed by modifiers, (if there be such) in the order following : Time, circumstances in alphabetical order, extensions (the point from which a symptoms extends is the one under which it will be found, not the point to which it extends), location with its time, circumstance and extension modifiers, and lastly, sensation with its modifiers. For instance, the main section Head is anatomical. but under that you will not find an anatomical section for occiput, rather must you look under the sensation in the occiput, as for instance, COLDNESS or PAIN, OCCIPUT, in.
It is to be noted that certain anatomical regions have no corresponding section in this Repertory, for instance, Neck, which is found under Throat, External Throat and Back. External Throat contains the rubrics pertaining to the anterior neck,m such as goitre, glands, torticollis, etc., and Back contains nape and posterior cervical region.
Furthermore, lungs, heart, aorta, axillary glands, breast and milk appear under Chest ; posterior chest appears under Back ; pulse under Generalities ; head sinuses are divided between Nose and Face; salivary glands are found under Stomach ; and liver under Abdomen. There is no section for the circulatory, glandular or nervous system, as this book is not based on systems, (Boerickes Repertory is in part), but the parts of these systems are found scattered throughout the book under allied anatomical headings.
Many symptoms which one would expect to find under the nervous systems appear under Generalities as they indicate a tendency of the whole organism, such a ANALGESIA, CHOREA, CONVULSIONS, PARALYSIS, TREMBLING etc. Twitching of the parts appears under the anatomical part, such as Face, Extremities. Nervous symptoms having to do with the spine appear under Back, such as OPISTHOTONUS. Meningitis appears in two places, under Head, INFLAMMATION, meninges of, and Back, INFLAMMATION, cord, membranes of.
Similar of allied rubrics often appear in two or more different places, as for instance : Dysmenorrhoea under Genitalia, Female, MENSES painful ; menses, during ; Abdomen, PAIN, hypogastrium, in, menses during ; and Abdomen, PAIN, menses during.
It must be noted that many rubrics which appear as particulars under the proper anatomical sections or main heading also appear in the last section, Generalities, in their relation to the body as a whole, for instance, under Generalities, MENSES, comes aggravation or amelioration of the whole person before, during or after menses, while under Genitalia Female appears the type and circumstances of the menses, or so to speak, the particulars.
Similarly under Generalities, PERSPIRATION, appears amelioration or aggravation of the body as a whole from sweat, whereas under the section Perspiration are given the quality, occurrence and modalities of the discharge itself. Sweat of any especial part is found under the anatomical section in which the part is located, such as Abdomen, PERSPIRATION on.
Perspiration of the scalp is not under Head, scalp, perspiration of but under Head, PERSPIRATION, scalp of. General amelioration by, or distress from, the act of eating appears under Generalities, EATING ; and under Generalities, FOOD, are the aggravations and ameliorations from the different article of food, but under the section Stomach, aversions and desire for special articles of food appear.
Pathological diagnoses are found frequently in Generalities and occasionally as headings under other sections but more often as sub-headings under the condition involved, for instance, pleurisy is found under Chest, INFLAMMATION, pleura of, and appendicitis.
On the other hand empyema is found under Chest, EMPYEMA, directly and goitre under External throat, GOITRE. Certain pathological states which are symptoms rather than diseases, such as CHOREA, CONVULSIONS, CYANOSIS, DROPSY, etc., appear and Generalities. Objective symptoms are scattered all through the book and are often small unclassified rubrics, such a BRITTLE NAILS, GESTURES under Mind, BITING under Mind, and red lips under Face, DISCOLOURATION, red, lips.
THE KENT REPERTORY : ITS USE.
This Repertory is built to work the cases form general symptoms to particular symptoms. We have already spoken in our lecture on the evaluation of symptoms of Kents method of grading, Mentals being the most important, and Generals next. Most chronic cases and many acute ones can be worked out by the Repertory on the Mentals and Generals alone to within three to five remedies, The beginner should take at least eight of these symptoms, although experts often solve the case on three to five.
The beginner must be sure that these Mentals and Generals are really true of the patient, and that he has not warped the symptom in translating the patients colloquial expressions into the language of the rubrics. Moreover a symptoms must have the same mass or importance in the patients case as is assigned to it in the symptoms hierarchy.
If an important symptom can not be found in the Repertory it can be found under a synonymous rubric. It is to be understood that the headings under Generalities which are not pathological and not marked “ameliorated by”, or otherwise explained, and which are not sensations or conditions, mean “aggravation from”, for example, EATING, before, means worse before eating. COITION, after, means aggravated after coition, etc. Many of the ameliorations are omitted and you must look the for them under aggravation under their opposites, for instance, there is no better in summer.
This is considered equivalent to worse in winter. Sometimes two or more rubrics must be combined in order to be equivalent to a given symptom. If the rubrics are very small it very small it may be wise to add all the remedies. If at least one of the rubrics is large and others fair size, only such remedies as run through all the component rubrics of this symptoms should be taken.
Certain symptoms have so large a group of remedies that they are almost useless except as eliminating symptoms. Such a one is cold bloodedness of the patient, which appears under Generalities, HEAT, lack of vital, and would serve to eliminate any markedly hot blooded remedies which had otherwise come through the generals high in a given a case.
The student would recall from our previous lecture that the common symptoms, or the unqualified big, main rubrics, such as SADNESS VOMITING, etc., are of little or no use in repertorizing and that among both Generals and Particulars, a strange, rare and peculiar symptoms ranks high. A strange, rare and peculiar general would be “during cold stage craves cold”, or “during hot stage craves heat,” as in Camphor ; a strange, rare and peculiar particular would be “thirst for ice water only during chill” (Eup. per.).
We have said that the beginner should locate in the Repertory his eight or more main Generals and chart the remedies appearing under each of these, putting 3 for the bold face (heavy black type), 2 for italics and 1 for roman (plain type), this being done for all the symptoms chosen, the remedies appearing in more than half the rubrics are listed with their fractions, the numerator of the fraction being the numerical totality of the remedy grades, and the denominator being the number of symptoms in which the remedy appears.
Now the Particulars come into play, beginning with the most peculiar ones, and care should he taken not to use too small rubrics. In fact it is safer to use a more general, medium sized rubric than the more exact particular rubric, The occurrence of these particulars in the few remedies which have stood highest in the Generals and in these only, being taken, you can now see which few remedies are fairly similar to the Generals of your case, and which few of those most resemble the Particulars of the case.
