Importance of generalities and supplementary reference table section of Boger’s synoptic key in practice

Dr Bharath Raj C K

ABSTRACT
Bogers “A synoptic key of the materia medica”  the aim of this book is to simplify the use of Homoeopathic materia medica so that truly curative remedy may be worked out with greater ease and certainly in a given case. for this purpose the  synoptic key has been presented as a combination of the analytic and synoptic methods. This is an attempt to categorise Generalities section of synoptic key under the headings Sensations, clinical conditions and modalities and also the utility and importance of Supplementary reference table.

Key words: Generalities, supplementary reference table, Location, clinical conditions, modalities.

INTRODUCTION
“A Synoptic key of the Materia Medica” certainly is one of the most appreciated books in homoeopathic books in homoeopathic literature and it is a must have for the profession. In the time, it was written and distributed among colleagues it was well understood and whoever had problems in understanding could ask Boger himself  how to handle it.

The aim of this book is to simplify the method of arriving a homoeopathic curative remedy with greater ease and certainty. For this purpose a combination of analytic and synoptic methods have been thought best.

C M Boger (1861-1935) probably one of the last great homoeopathicians of the western world before the great decline of homoeopathy. During his homoeopathic education he learned different approaches of remedy finding, one of them was developed by J T Kent, and other one was the mainly used Boenninghausen approach, which was brought into the shape of keynote system, given by H N Guerensy and others.

EDITIONS

• First edition – 1915
• Second edition – 1916
• Third edition – 1926
• Fourth edition – 1931
• Augmented edition – 1935
• Rearranged and augmented edition – 2007, Revised edition – 2015.

Number of remedies

• Analytical part – 489
• Synopsis part – 323

Typography

Rearranged and augmented edition : 2007

• CAPITAL
• Roman bold
• Ordinary roman.

Revised edition : 2015

• CAPITAL BOLD
• CAPITAL
• Roman bold
• Ordinary roman.

Philosophical background

• Based on the concept of particulars to generals
• Based on the complete symptom, concomitants and pathological generals.

PLAN AND CONSTRUCTION

The book contains three parts

1. Analytical part (repertory part)

• The periods of aggravation
• Conditions of aggravation and amelioration
• Generalities
• Regional repertory

2. Synopsis part (material medica part)
3. Third part comprising of

• Table of the approximate duration of remedies
• Complementary remedies
• Antagonistic remedies , Supplementary reference table.

GENERALITIES

Consists of drug affinities for entire organism

For eg: Aching, albuminous, compression, congestion etc.

GENERALITIES SECTION

SENSATIONS	CLINICAL CONDITIONS	MODALITIES
Aching	Acridity Excoriations	Alternating effect states
Adhesive	Albuminous glairy discharges	Associated effects
Alive sensation	Ammoniacal odor	Bending
Asleep	Anemia Chlorosis	Changing
Attitudes bizzare	Aneurism	Carried wants to be
Awkwardness	Apoplexy	Carsickness
Ball lump	Arthritic	Cellars
Band	Atheroma	Children
Bearing down	Black	Chronicity
Beaten	Blood	Clear
Biting	Blood vessels	Cold taking
Blows	Bluish	Desquamation
Boring	Bones	Direction
Breaking	Brittle	Backward
Bubbling	Caries	Crosswise
Burning- painful, stingting	Cartilages	Ascending sensations
Congestion	Condyles	Diagonal
Constriction	Curvatures	Downward
Consumption	Exostoses	Forward
Cracking in joints	Marrows	Outward
Crackling	Periosteum	Radiating
Cracks	Bruised	Up and down
Cramp colic	Burns	Discharges
Crawling	Burnt scalded as if	Doubling up
Creeping	Contortions	Drugs abuse of
Crushing	Contractions	Dust
Cutting	Convulsions	Emotions
Cap	Choreiform	Excitement
Carphology	Coppery color	Grasped and relaxed
Chilly cold	Crusts	Gushing
Climaxis	Cysts	Here and there
Clutching	Calculi atheroma	Increasing or decreasing
Coated	Cancer	Intermittency
Cobwebs	Capillaries	Irregular
Compression	Carbuncle	Lie down
Dead feeling	Collapse	Motion
Deadness	Concussions	Moistness
Delicate	Condylomata	Needles
Digestion	Dark	Noise
Draft	Dusky color	Old age
Dragging	Death	Opening and shutting
Drawn	Delirium	Paroxysms
Dryness	Delusions	Periodicity
Duality	Dislocations	Pregnancy
Empty Elongated	Dropsy	Pressing or bearing down
Enlarged	Dwarfish	Puberty and youth
Faint	Earthy	Remittency
Falling, falling as if	Ebullitions	Rising and falling
Feathers	Emaciation	Slides down in bed
Floating	Erysipelas	Squeezing
Flowing	Excoriation	Stiffening out
Flying to pieces	Explosions	Suppressions
Foamy	Fibrous tissue	Seasickness
Fulness	Fistulae	Sensitive
Fumes	Flushes	Separated
Glistening	Formication	Sewing
Gnawing	Frostbite	Swelling
Greasy	Fungoid growth	Sycosis
Grinding	Gait	Touch
Gripple	Ganglion	Trifles
Gritly feeling	Gelatinous	Turning over
Gurgling	Glands	Vibration
Hacking	Gonorrohea	Violent effects
Hair	Greyish	Warmth
Hanging down	Growth	Washing averse to
Hardbed	Growths	Water
Hardness	Hemorrhage	Weight
Heaviness	Hypertrophy	Wind
Hollow	Hysteria	Writing
Humming	Incontinence
Hydrophobia	Induration
Inactive	Inflammation
Indifferent	Influenza
Insensibility	Injuries
Jerking pain, jerks	Joints
Knot	Measles
Labor like	Mucus secretions
Lassitude	Muscles
Lethargy	Nerve pain
Lightening	Nettled capillaries
Limping	Nodes
Livid	Obesity
Looking intently	Orifices
Loose	Paralysis
Mapped	Phagedena
Numbness	Plethora
Offensiveness	Polypi
Orgasms	Prolapse
Pain	Protrusion
Painlessness	Restlessness
Patchy	Rickets
Perception	Skin
Pinching	Spasmodic or convulsive effects
Plug	Speech
Poisoned feeling	Splashing
Pricking	Scrofula
Puffiness	Secretions
Pulsation	Sepsis
Quivering	Shocks
Radiating	Suppuration
Rawness	Syphilis
Reeling	Tenesmus
Relaxation	Thick discharges
Retraction	Trembling
Sinking	Twitching
Sit	Typhoid
Soreness	Ulceration
Splinter	Valve
Stinging	Vicarious
Stitches	Yellow
Rolling
Rough
Saltniness
Severe pain
Shuddering
Tearing
Thinness
Tingling
Torpid
Tough
Twisting
Vapor
Watery
Waves
Weariness

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCE TABLE
In the forward to supplementary reference table, Boger states that this section is enriched with the information from the Materia medica part of the respective remedies. This make clearness and facility and reference.

This section includes locations, sensations which are not given under the repertory part. For eg head- wrapping-amelioration the rubrics are given in Alphabetical order along with the page number against them.

The alphabetical arranged symptoms numbers refers to pages of the repertory part giving hint to the rubrics with the same title or with a similar meaning.

It consists of a single experience Boger had made, or a sample of medicines from a publication for eg- All the rubrics of Boenninghausen’s aphorisms of Hippocrates.

The remedies included under supplementary reference table are not yet enough to include under the repertory part, as they are of verifications in Boger’s own cases, of rubric taken elsewhere, of personal ideas or studies or hypothesis without being sure about the value of these information in a reportorial structure.

Supplementary reference table has the following functions

• To give hints to different rubrics of the repertory part
• To suggest some more remedies in case the repertory part does not lead to proper remedy
• It opens up the way to steadily adapt repertory and materia medica to later experiences and developments.

CONCLUSION
The generalities section of Bogers Synoptic Key has many rubrics which can be classified under the headings : Sensations, Clinical conditions and Modalities, and practical importance of supplementary reference table, this is a small attempt to classify Generalities section under headings Sensations, Clinical coditions and importance of supplementary reference table.

REFERENCES

1. Boger C.M Synoptic key of the materia medica. Delhi: B jain Publishers;2007
2. Tiwari S. Essentials of repertorization.5^th ed. Delhi: B jain publishers (P) LTD;2012
3. Salim S, D Mohan G,D G. Repertory Expert.1^st ed. Kozhikode: Dr. Salim’s center for homoeopathic healing:2020.

Dr Bharath Raj C K
Department of case taking and Repertory
Under the guidance of Dr Anusuya M Akareddy
Government Homoeopathic medical college and Hospital, Bengaluru.