A critical study of Vol.1 of Synthetic repertory

Dr Sanil Kumar   

Authors: Dr. med. Horst Barthel &   Dr. med. Will Klunker

Horst Barthel constructed Volume I & II. Volume III is by Will Klunker (according to the front cover page)

Translator:

• German translation: Dr. Pierre Schmidt of Geneva
• French translation: Dr. med. Jacques Baur, Lyon with few additions.

 Year of publication:

• 1^st edition:  1973
• 2^nd revised & improved edition: 1980 – 82
• 3 rd edition:    1987
• 4^th improved edition reprint: 993 

This repertory is published in 3 languages:  English, German and French

Number of remedies: 1594

1598 in the reprint edition, 1993 by B.Jain Publishers (P) ltd., New Delhi

Gradation of remedies

• 4 grades
• 1^st grade:      BOLD CAPITAL UNDERLINE
• 2^nd grade:     BOLD CAPITAL
• 3^rd grade:   Small letter bold
• 4^th grade:   small letter 

Based mainly on (Author’s index)

1)Kent. J.T

• Kent’s Repertory
• Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia medica
• New remedies

2)Knerr.C

• Repertory of the Hering Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica

3) C.M.Boger

• Boenninghausen’s Characteristics and Repertory
• Addition to kent’s repertory
• A synoptic key of the Materia Medica

4) Jahr G.H.R

• Systematic Alphabetical Repertory of the Homoeopathic Remedy Doctrine

5) Gallavardin J.P

• Psychisme et Homoeopathie

6) Stauffer.K

• Symptom index

7) Schmidt.P

• Annotations in Kent’s repertory
• Kent’s Final General Repertory published by D.H.Chand.
• His 50 years of clinical experience made him to introduce 4^th grade to many drugs.

8) Boericke.O.E

• Boericke’s repertory

9) Stephenson.J

• A Materia Medica and Repertory, Hahnemann’s Provings 1924 – 1959

10) Mezger.J

• Gesichetete Homeopathische Arznemittellehre – 35 reproven / new drugs

11) Allen.T.F

• A general Symptom Register of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica

12) Clarke.J.H

•  A clinical Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica

13) The most recent drug provings published in the journals

14) Julian.O.A

• Matiere Medicale d’ Homeotherapie of 1971
• Dictionnaire de Materia Medicale de 130 Noveaux Homeotherapeutiques (2^nd edition of the 1^st book)

15) Kunzli.J - Supplements taken from the International Homoeopathic Literature

16) Hahnemann.S

• Materia Medica Pura
• Chronic Diseases 

This is the first repertory to use the numbering system to show the exact source of the sysmptoms or drugs. Numbering is done in superscript from after the drug.

No numbering for Kent’s Repertory remedies.

• ¹mark for addition made in his own hand in Kent’s repertory.
• ^1’ for supplements from Kent’s Lectures and New Remedies
• 2-14 respectively numbered as per the order of the author index.
• ^1,5 or ^1,7 Gallavardin’s and Pierre Schmidt’s experience made some drugz of Kent’s repertory into higher grades.
• Asterisk sign ‘*’ is used for symptoms refers to one of the 138 new collected rubrics of the index of Vol I and Vol II. 

Philosophical background
Based on generals

The first volume of synthetic repertory deals with psychic symptoms:

Comparison of Kent Repertory with Synthetic at the level of mental generals
In Kent’s repertory 528 mental rubrics are given where as in synthetic repertory 563 mental rubrics are given. Some new rubrics which are there in synthetic and are not there in Kent’s

1. ADULTEROUS
2. ALERT
3. AFFABILITY
4. AGILITY, MENTAL
5. AILMENTS FROM
6. ANOREXIA MENTALIS
7. BARGAINING
8. BILIOUS DISPOSITION
9. BUOYANCY
10. CORRUPT
11. COUNTRY DESIRE FOR
12. FINANCE APTITUDE FOR
13. PESSIMIST
14. POSTPONING
15. SELFLESSNESS
16. YIELDING DISPOSITION
17. UNRELIABLE
18. UNDIGNIFIED
19. TEARING
20. SUSCEPTIBILITY

 Rubrics not present in Synthetic Repertory but present in Kent’s repertory

1. ATTITUDE, assumes strange
2. BELLOWING
3. FRIGHT, complaints from
4. GROWLING like a dog
5. KNEELING and praying
6. MANIA A POTU
7. MIRTH, hilarity, liveliness, etc
8. NEW, objects seem
9. PIETY, nocturnal
10. POWER, love of
11. REPULSIVE mood
12. SEXUAL EXCESSES, mental symptoms from
13. SURPRISES, pleasant, affections after
14. UNFRIENDLY humour
15. UNOBSERVING
16. UNREAL
17. UNTRUTHFUL
18. WICKED disposition
19. WILD feeling in head

In addition to this lot of rubrics given with cross reference but some/no remedies in Kent were not present in Synthetic Repertory: 133 rubrics

New remedies added to the old list given in Kent’s repertory

1. Abrupt: Puls, Calc carb, Lyc, Sulph
2. Ailments from indignation: Ars
3. Anxiety in children: Cina
4. Egotism: Lyc, Verat
5. Fear of being alone: Asf, Nat carb
6. Fear of animals: Bell, Calc carb
7. Fear of his own shadow: Calc carb
8. Jealousy: Med
9. Desire to kill with knife: Lyc
10. Never laugh: Ars

 Special features

• It consists only of general symptoms much more than Kent and thus helpful for Repertorisation where lot of general symptoms are present.
• Causative mental symptoms are brought together under one rubric called ‘Ailments from’ in Vol.1
• It consists of 1594 remedies and many more new rubrics than Kent.
• Sources from where the symptoms and drugs are taken are properly indicated by number.
• Huge reference: old, new, rare, and specific reference are possible.
• Helps in studying materia medica
• Published in 3 languages
• It represents synthesis of homoeopathic knowledge of the last 170 years
• Common errors like double entries, lack of clarity and wrong nomenclatures are corrected.
• Clinical rubrics are mentioned in various sections

 Criticism

• Mental causative ailments are seperated but physical causative ailments are scattered in Vol II.
• This repertory is not useful for the cases which have complete particular symptoms.
• Though it’s the enlarged version of Kent’s repertory, in mind chapter 18 rubrics are missing.
• In a complete case we have to use 3 volume of Synthetic plus Kent’s repertory for particulars and hence its not easy for a quick bed side reference.

Dr Sanil Kumar BHMS,MD(Hom)
Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology
Govt. Homeopathic Medical College. Calicut.10. India
Email : drsakumkumar@yahoo.co.in