Book Review
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Nov / Dec VOL 5 NO 6.
Reviewed by
Dr Vishpala Parthasarathy
Title : Homoeopathic Medical Repertory
Author: Robin Murphy
First Published 1993. Pages: 590
Indian Edition 1994. Price: Rs 750
Publisher: Indian Books and Periodicals, B-5/62 Dev Ashish P L Road Karol Baug, New Delhi 110005
I was first introduced to this Repertory only in June of 1997. And I have been using it very heavily since. In fact, so disappointed I was at not learning of it earlier, that I blasted the publishers "If only you would get introduced to the books early!". They promptly sent a copy for review. The rules are: we can only review coincides with this, our repertory issue.
I have been using Repertories from the beginning of my practice. First Kent and Therapeutic pocket book and Boger-Boenninghausens (for its concomitants)-all introduced to me by my late mentor Dr M L Dhawale.... Synthetic Repertory. But the SR is not yet available in the Indian market and I can make no practical comments on them. Robbins is compact and complete. Its drawback is that it does not mention the source at every juncture. But this drawback's advantage is that it saves space.
So, Advantages
1. Compact.
2. Chronologically arranged. So you find a rubric very easily and do not have to hunt and hunt for it.
3. It includes modern clinical and pathological conditions. eg Alzheimer's syndrome, polycystic ovaries and so on.
4. It has all the rubric of Kent and of Synthetic Repertory-sometimes wider. I only want to say that Robbins Repertory has added new excitement to my practice for the last 6 mths. All of us have acquired a copy in my clinic.
A small illustration of a rubric I used just this morning. A neurotic patient came demanding urgent attention and immediate relief for her Allergic Dermatitis, which I have been treating for 6 mths! "See my face! It looks burnt"
I found the rubric: MR Pg 1306: Skin, burnt, scorched as if: Ars, Canth, Ran-b, Verat-a.
This rubric is not found in Kent's Repertory. In SR the closest I could come to was: Burns SR Pg 53
: Sunburn Pg 17.
But both are not the exact rubrics.
Canth, when given, helped the burning and the blackishness.
Then I hit upon the 2nd exact rubric in the same case: MR Pg 1062: Impatience: cure him at once, the patient insists the doctor must: Ars, Cham, Nit-ac.
Of course, I thought to myself, the patient is exactly like a small child screaming in pain, but through her actions - impatiently pacing up and down. And like a child again, thinking the world revolves only around her. Cham 1 M has benefited her a great deal. The next time she came, she continued to pace up and down the waiting room, but no longer barged in the moment one patient came out, but waited her turn.
It is rubrics like these that have enamoured me of Robin's Repertory. It has almost completely replaced my constant use of all other repertories-except SR for cravings, and Boger-Boenninghausens for concomitants and Phatak. I know ofcourse that it is not the end of the road: other repertories are coming and will be used. I write this as per my experience today. I have also written to the publishers for putting MR in NJH BOOK CLUB, so that NJH family can get advantage. I, of course, bought my copies without asking special rate, but that does not mean I cannot ask for you'll
Late.... late... P S P S P S!!!
On reading Vijaykar's review of Complete Repertory, (which fortunately, came in just hours before we closed the Repertory Issue), I took 15 minutes off to compare the given Rubrics with Robbins, because CR and the Computer may not be accessible to all Homoeopaths, especially in India. I found it compares favourably - give and take on both Repertories. I compared the Rubrics he gave with Robbins (MR): MR - Pg 1038
| Embraces : | |
| Trees | - not in MR but there in CR |
| Companions | - agar , phos , plat , puls |
| Anyone | - caps, croc , hyos man, phos, plat, stram ,Verat |
| Inanimate objects, even - verat | |
| Menses, before verat, zinc | |
| MR Pg 1088 | |
Precocity, mental: but no sub-rubrics
MR Pg 1017 :
Contemptuous : agn, anac, aloe, alum, arg-n, arn, ars, bry, canth, caps, cham, chin, CIC, cina, com, cycl, guai, hell, hura, hyos, ign, ip, lac-ac, lac-c, lach, lyc, merc, nat-m nit-ac, nux-v, pall, par, PLAT, puls, sec, sil, spong, stram, SULPH, verat. hard for subordinates and agreeable-pleasant to superiors or people he has to fear - Lach, Lyc, Plat, Verat
opponents, for - com.
relations, for - sec
self, of - agn, anac, aur, cop, lac-c, staph, thuj
So here we see some rubrics are more in MR and some are more in CR-which means Robbins compares favourably, on a first inspection.
