Book Review
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2003 Sep / Oct VOL V NO 5.
Reviewed by
Dr Rashmi Nagar
Title : Repertory of Hom Materia Medica by Dr J T Kent 6th
American edition - Revised by Dr Ramanlal P Patel.
Edition: Professional (There are 2 editions. His & students edition)
Author: Dr Ramanlal Patel
Price: Rs 500/- US $50
Pages: 1423
Writing a repertory is no easy task. Dr Kent took up this mammoth task during his life time almost 100 years ago; went through several hardships, physical and financial yet did not complain. Revising and improvising on such work requires a lot of patience, effort, dedication and perseverance. This is exactly what Dr RP Patel’s latest work starts for.
Dr Patel had been doing a respect work since 1951. The present edition is the 3rd corrected and complete version to make students and practitioner’s task easier.
The author while practicing used to mark errors in Kent’s repertory with a pencil and found that they were growing by the day.
There are 19 different types like remedies alleviations, alphabetical order, remedies having two names, spacing of the remedies, heading of the chapters, repetition of rubrics and others. To give example of one Aloe listed in Kent’s repertory is not clear as to whether it is Aloe-forex or Aloe-socotrina. Same with cactus whether it is Cactus-grandif or Cactus-opunita. Many such confusions have been cleared in Dr Patel’s work.
Also there were about 70 medicines and their alleviations which were missing in the 6th edition published by Ehrhart & Karl. These have been included in the revised work.
Such and many other improvements are carried out without distorting the original work. It is in author’s words, ‘only an attempt to polish the ‘Pure Gold’. It surely shines more.
Reading the preface by Dr Kent and publishers of the earlier editions Ehrart and Karl gives better understanding of the present work and the labour of Dr Kent and his struggle for publishing and selling it for 30$ in those days. It is such dedication that has kept Homoeopathy alive and popular.
Dr Patel’s work will be widely acclaimed and useful for the fraternity.
The picture of Dr Kent and his cemetery from where the author was inspired to take up the present work, is like a bridge that joins the past and the present. Referring to the present work will help us widen our horizons for a brighter future.
