Boericke’s Repertory

Oscar Eugene Boericke M.D.

     With the advent of the incomparable Ninth Edition of the progressive pocket Materia Medica, its modest companion, the Repertory, has been completely remodelled and brought up to date, by embodying much of the newly incorporated material. Many of the Sections have been carefully rewritten, and, with appropriate expansion, offer a more trustworthy guide for the selection of the homœopathic remedy. A few prefatory remarks, pertaining to the practical and expeditious use of the repertorial contents, may assist in clarifying a certain inevitable obscurity of plan.

     Firstly, in conformity with established repertorial methods, the division of the sections in somewhat the old Hahnemannian order is adhered to, and may be stated as follows: Mind; Head; Eyes; Ears, etc.

     Secondly, for the purpose of convenience, solely, headings and sub-headings and specific conditions or symptoms comprised under the latter are arranged in alphabetical order, and this is more or less consistently adhered to throughout the entire work. For example, under Mind the headings read, Awkward, brain-fag, catalepsy, etc.; likewise the heading Delirium embraces its various phases in alphabetical order.

     Thirdly, all headings when extensive in scope -e.g., Headache, are presented under definite captions in the following order: Cause, Type, Location, Character of pain, Concomitants, Modalities -i.e., Aggravations and Ameliorations. It is to be observed that some headings include only a few, whereas others include all of these divisions. This method has been resorted to simply to facilitate the task of the use of the repertory.

     Fourth, to preserve uniformity, the technical names of diseases are bracketed, thereby assuming a subsidiary place, which is in strict accord with the homœopathic requirement, to prescribe for the symptoms of each specific case, and not for a mere name of a disease. Of course, being a clinical and not a truly symptomatological index (for which the practitioner and student are referred to the monumental works of Kent, Knerr and Clarke) technical terms are often selected as main headings, and when feasible, the more or legs complete symptoms constitute the sub-headings.

     Fifthly, the remedies are arranged in alphabetical order, and the italics indicate the more frequently verified clinical remedy. The abbreviations of the remedies are purely arbitrary and self-explanatory.

     A complete alphabetical Index, newly added, will surely offer much assistance to the busy practitioner, in the ready reference to the specific information desired.

     Lastly, it a only by the persistent use of one repertory, that its peculiar and intricate arrangements gradually crystallizes itself in definite outline, in the mind of the student of the same, and thus he attains the ready ease and practical insight of the collator, thereby rendering such a clinical bee-line well-nigh indispensable in our day of labor-saving devices.