Book Review
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Nov / Dec VOL 5 NO 6.
Reviewed by
Dr Jawahar Shah
Dr Praful Vijaykar
Title : Complete Repertory
Author: Roger Van Zandvoort
Address: IRHIS, Van Stelaan 347, 2273 ER Voorburg, The Netherlands
TEL: 0031-703-871862. FAX: 0031-703-872184
Pages: 2800 (10 kg!).
Price: $ 300/-
It generally takes a lot of time to write even a single page on a subject. Imagine creating a book which weighs approximately ten kilograms! Roger Van Zandvoort has performed this incredible task.
Talking about weight, the book is not just heavy but is also rich in content and matter for the benefit of homoeopathic students and practitioners.
Kent was the only doctor who contributed to all the fields of Homoeopathy - Philosophy, Materia Medica and Repertory. Even today Kent's Repertory is considered the most practical and useful repertory. Not much of work was ever done in this direction since Kent's book was published.
The first major response was the Synthetic Repertory by Barthel and Klunker. (I remember, as a student, I went and actually saw this repertory and was quite impressed.) After this there has been some effort made in the form of Synthesis Repertory. But amongst all these repertories, maximum details have been taken care of the Complete Repertory. In the true sense, it is the most complete repertory ever created in the history of Homoeopathy.
There are a number of new remedies: Ozone (ozone), Bambusa (Bamboo, bamb-a), Marble (lap-mar-c), Limestone (lap-c-m), Sequoia semperviens (seq-s), Lac-humanum (lac-h), many additions for Sacharum-officianalis. New information on Carcinosin and the Bowel nosode has been used and some corrections made to the abbreviations for the bowel nosodes.
Hydrophis, a snake venom, has been added. Many of the snake names have been updated to their proper zoological equivalent.
A lot of replanning has gone into the sectional organization of the repertory. The 'Mind' section is the most amazing and takes care of the minutest details. The mind symptoms have been systematically classified and indexed so that the right rubric remedy can be found easily. Pain in the skin section now finally can be found under the main rubric 'Pain' as in all the other sections. Noises in several sections now have been brought together under the main rubric 'Noises' (like in Abdomen for grumbling, quacking, etc). Discolourations have been brought together under the main rubric Discolouration/Colour' etc. The 'Discolouration' and 'Eruption' rubric have been recognized so that they always have the same hierarchical structure where the location follows the type of eruption or discolouration.
Many occurrences of synonyms have been simplified using the most common word for their specific meaning. (Example: Childbirth, parturition, labour, have all gone to a rubric called 'Delivery, Parturition'.) Additions have been made from many reliable sources especially in the interesting individual rubrics. New page references have been made in all sections. The new Complete Repertory 4.0 has thousands of corrections to the original Kent text-based on a comparison of first, second and third original American editions of Kent's Repertory, Kunzli's Repertorium Generale and the Final General Repertory by Pierre Schmidt and Harish Chand. These findings have been compared with Allens Index which includes many errors of remedy abbreviations like Bor / bov, Cimic/ cimx, Mang-m / Mag-m, etc. Unique information and cross references have been added from Pierre Schmidt, Kent Repertories, and Boenninghausens personal repertories. Boger-Boenninghausens Repertory, Boerickes Repertory the most useful part of Phataks Repertory have been completely incorporated using Reference Works for cross checking the material with their source.
Some remedy abbreviations have been changed for better readability Alumin-met, has gone to ". ( Aluminium-silicicum has been resurrected since confused with Alum-sil, Aluminia-silicate). Some Vipera species have been unified since they were one and the same zoologically.
The additions and author numbers used in 4.0 sure that the most original authors have been used. A new list of Author number has been used, the same one as has been used in book versions of The Complete Materia Medica Mind, to produce a list based on chronology, where Hahnemann is number 1 and Jeremy Sherr in number 222.
What Some Of The Leading Practitioners Have To Say
"It is the most Complete Repertory so it has earned its name. The layout is virtually identical to Kent's layout with even some changes for the better: The additions can be verified since every addition has an author number. One can decide himself whether or not an author is important or not."
Guy Kokelenberg
"It will provide the means for research that will move homoeopathy to a whole new plane of sophistication."
Bill Gray
"I must give my highest praise to Roger van Zandvoort for his great accomplishment: the most complete and accurate repertory ever devised. In its every page we see the dedication and integrity of the editor. While preserving the traditional language, subtlety and format of our beloved Kent's Repertory, Roger van Zandvoort has made additions which augment its content and scope. I find the Complete Repertory indispensable to my practice."
Roger Morrison
" find the Complete Repertory to be indispensable to my practice. I can't wait to get it in book form. Like Roger, I am one of these old-fashioned people that love books. It is one of the greatest contributions to Homoeopaths in the world will be using it."
Nancy Herrick
I have always had the philosophy in life to only go for the best. And I strongly recommend the Complete Repertory for all serious practitioners of Homoeopathy.... practitioners who want results. The Complete Repertory is worth its weight in terms of the effort put in to compile it and the information it possesses. May cure visit all!
