Use Of Lesser Known Or Used Repertories
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Nov / Dec VOL 5 NO 6.
Dr T K Kasiviswanathan
'Puls / Sep / Verbascum / Art-vul
Case 1
In a case of simple cold in a 3 yr old child Belladonna initially cleared but failed to hold and the child was running a daily maximum temperature of 1050 F. The glands of the throat were involved and were sore and swollen. Another physician was called in on the case in the meantime. Bell was still indicated though there were some symptoms that seemed to contraindicate it.
"Relationships of Remedies" came to the rescue. The case was analyzed under this chapter under the remedy Bell. Only the drugs ranking 3, 4 and 5 listed with the list given by Dr Boeninghausen under other major heads, viz, Location, Sensations, Glands, Bones, Skin, Sleep and Dreams, Blood & Circulation and fever Aggravations as time and circumstance and other relationships.Following is the summary :
Apis 8/28; Bapt 7/18; Bry 9/33; Cann-i 6/18; Cham 7/20; Lyc 9/33; Opium 4/13; Puls 10/46; Rhus-t 8/30; Sul 10/39.
Pulsatilla tops the list with 46 marks and appears in all rubrics. A casual study of Puls in Materia Medica confirmed it and it was given. In three days, the temperature and glands were normal.
Boger-Boeninghausen's Charateristics And Repertory
Dr Boger was a keen student of Dr Boeninghausen and a German scholar. He undertook the task of bringing under one volume the essentials of masterpieces of Boeninghausen. The repertory part is an expanded version of the Therapeutic Pocket Book and incorporates a number of additional remedies which were proved and put into clinical use after Dr Boeninghausen's death. The Materia Medica consists of the Characteristics of remedies as written by Dr Boeninghausen and translated into English for the first time and other works such as "Whooping cough", Domestic Physician, Symptom text of the 'Intermittent fever' and therapeutic hints gleaned from "Aphorisms of Hippocrates."
Dr Boger has also drawn from Dr Boeninghausen's correspondence, sifting the material to avoid unnecessary repetition. He also expanded the concomitant symptoms and put them at the end of each chapter wherever relevant. Dr L D Dhawale, Dr M L Dhawale Dr A C Das, Dr Bhanu D Desai and Dr Gunavante, like Dr Roberts, were/are experts in using this repertory. With active assistance from Dr Gunavante, Dr Bhanu Desai has written a booklet on "How to find the similimum from Boger-Boeninghausen's Repertory" which helps with examples to use this repertory expertly.
Case 2
Mr N, aged 47 yrs, complained of dull pain in Lt thigh paraesthesias over the Lt knee and leg. It increased on exerting the leg, massaging it or even when that leg was kept in a folded position as in sitting for a long time. It was diagnosed as Sciatic. The pain AGG in the evenings and after pressure. The trouble started after sitting for long for watching cricket matches. Though Irgapyrin tablets reduced the pain, it recurred and was not completely cured. Pain increased when the patient started movement but AMEL after continued motion. He also suffered from Fibrositis, Lumbago and Hyper acidity.
Desired hot food and drink and warm bath. Suffered from sore throat after taking cold things and ice cream. Aversion of sour foods. Burning soles, AGG at night and in summer and AMEL by uncovering. S Uric-acid 6.1mg%. Became sick during long car journeys.
The case was repertorised from Boger-Boeninghausen Repertory as under :
1. Uric-acid diathesis (p 1148) - strong causative modality
2. Motion continued AMEL (p 1133) - modality
3. Bathing in cold water AGG (p 1107) - constitutional modality
4. Driving in a carriage AGG (p 1114) - conconmitant
5. Lower extremities, external pressure AGG (p877) - modality
The two common remedies in all these rubrics are Lyc (12/4) and Sepia (18/5).
Cold bath AGG excludes Lyc and "extremities uncovered, inclination to, feet (Kent Repertory -p 1222) is covered only by Sepia. Sepia was the correct choice which cured the patient (L D Dhawale). In this case the similimum was worked out from the pathology, modalities and the concomitant symptom which had no relation to the main complaint.
Both the Therapeutic Pocket Book and Boger-Boeninghausen Repertory lay special emphasis in ascertaining the concomitant symptoms in every case, as it is mostly the differentiating factor. Dr M L Dhawale aptly summarizes the importance of the concomitant symptoms as under
- A certain group of symptoms outside the main sphere of the action of the drug appeared more often.
- The same was noticed in clinical practice in-patients.
- These symptoms, removed from the main sphere of the disease, natural or drug-induced conferred individuality on the picture.
- Certain drugs are observed to have greater propensity to develop such symptoms.
- A concomitant that could be effectively linked with the main affliction through common aggravation and amelioration represented a highly characteristic feature of the remedy and is therefore of great importance.
- Observations of the evolution of the disease through different stages to its termination and of the clinical effects of the similimum indicate:
- Characteristic concomitant symptoms appear much before the development of the diagnostic group of signs and symptoms thus allowing definitive treatment in the pre-diagnostic stage of the disease. Thus Homoeopaths can abort many diseases.
- Characteristic concomitant symptoms have a tendency to fade with advancing pathology.
- Absence of characteristic symptoms indicate the unsuitability of the case.
- Mental concomitants in physical ailments and physical concomitants in mental ailments provide an unfailing guide to the similimum.
- Certain concomitant symptoms may occur every time the patient is about to fall ill, irrespective of the nature of the developing disease giving an adequate warning for corrective action. These indicate that the concomitant symptoms owe their origin to constitutional peculiarities of the individual. Concomitants, thus, determine the acute as well as the constitutional remedy.
- Presence of general concomitants pointing unmistakably to deep-acting remedies like Lyc and Sul, etc, during acute illnesses indicates a serious imbalance, which could be fatal unless corrected in time by the administration of the deep-acting remedy in the correct potency and repeated properly.
- General characteristic concomitants pointing to the deep-acting constitutional remedy are best assessed at the end of an acute disease controlled by the acute remedy.
