Grading in Boger’s Synoptic Key: A Clear and Conclusive Interpretation

Dr  Kajol Gupta

Everyone who has been an enthusiast of repertory must have gone through Boger’s synoptic key once in their lifetime to realise what a great repertory it is. After all, it contains the fruits of labour by Dr. C M Boger, his experiences of lifetime, and a new way of analysing the cases. This little book can be easily carried while taking bedside cases during IPD rounds or for easy reference during hectic OPD hours.

The book “A Synoptic key to Materia Medica” by Dr. C M Boger is a three part treatise. The first part includes Analysis, also known as the Repertory part. The middle part contains Synopsis, that is, the Materia Medica part. And the last part includes – Table of approximate duration of action of drugs, Complementary remedies, Antagonistic remedies, and Supplementary reference table. This makes the repertory complete in all sense.

Yet a repertory is useful only when the grading is clearly understood. Without grading the physician can’t eliminate apparently similar medicines, which is the basic work of any repertory. But for the longest time, the grading in Boger’s synoptic key has been wrongly understood as three grades – Capital, Bold, and Roman.

If we check any reference books, or even articles from internet, almost all of them reveal the same three grades. Even the entrance exam for homoeopathic MD course, also known as AIAPGET, gives the three grades in BSK as the right answer. This is why the need of this article.

It actually began as a curiosity towards understanding the grades in BSK when our super seniors mentioned that the book has exception to grading at two places. This was initially brushed off as printing mistake because of the prejudice we all were carrying about three grades.

Later on, my batchmate and friend, Dr. Mayank Patidar brought to my attention, that the exception might be at more places than those two. A month later, I decided to check all the exceptions to clarify if it was just printing error, or something else. That made me jot down a list of pages, and rubrics where there were four grades visibly present. After three months, my another batchmate and friend, Dr. Sushil Kumar Rajbhar, brought the latest edition of Bjain’s Boger’s synoptic key, which has an introduction part written by Norbert Winter mentioning the grading in the book. There were four grades mentioned in that.

Yet, there was no change in the homeopathic students, or teachers, regarding the grading of BSK. My batch mate, and friend, Dr. Anil Kumar Shukla, worked passionately around it, searching the internet about the authenticity of this grading, but we found nothing of virtue. It was then decided, that we will write an article about it so that it will bring the required change.

This article is just about grading in Boger’s synoptic key. We could have given the summary about this repertory or about life history of Dr. Boger. But then the major purpose of writing this article would get lost. Moreover, there have been numerous articles which help us study about BSK – the only cons about them, were this grading.

Overall, it’s true that the first grade has appeared not much frequently; otherwise it would have caught anyone’s attention. But wherever it has appeared the remedy looks pretty obvious for that particular rubric. That’s what makes Dr. Boger’s work even more authentic. There has been no doubt about Dr. Boger being a passionate student of Dr. Beonninghausen, so it would be safe to say that Beonninghausen’s work could have influenced Dr. Boger to use 4 grading.

With that said, I’m pasting a screenshot from homeoint.org which contains repertory in authentic source. There also one can see that there are four different grades used with the first one (BOLD CAPITAL given as Bold Roman Underline with red ink) clearly shown in rubric – “GENERALITIES, OLD AGE, senility”

Even though, we have mentioned the scores of these grades as +4, +3, +2, and +1, technically speaking we don’t have any authenticity towards it because the author, Dr. Boger, never mentioned it. We have been only taking the liberty to assume them as mentioned but the latest edition claim the same as well.

Apart from this, there are pages of the repertory given here for easy understanding of the grading in BSK. The thing that leads to this misinterpretation could have been because of the typography in Boger’s synoptic key, where the rubrics, and sub rubrics have been in bold roman, and Roman types which makes it difficult for the reader to differentiate between different grades.

Here we can clearly see the four grades used in this repertory.

The rubric, given on left side of page – GENERALITIES, SPASMODIC OR CONVULSIVE EFFECTS, twitchings, jerks, etc. – gives

• KALI–C., & LACH. – First grade remedies – (+4) marks.
• , CUP., HYOS., STAN., & STRAM. – Second grade remedies – (+3) marks.
• The other grades can be easily understood as third and fourth ones – being bold roman and simple roman.

The same can be seen on the right side of page as well, in the rubric – COUGH – which is a general rubric for the same chapter – gives

• DROS., HEP., PHO., & PULS. – First grade remedies – (+4) marks.
• NUX-V., & SEP. – Second grade remedies – (+3) marks.

Likewise, both these pages also show the four grades used in this repertory in different sections.

Since there has never been doubt about the other three grades – CAPITAL, Bold, and Roman, we have listed down the rubrics where the first grade has been mentioned – i.e., – BOLD CAPITAL.

List of rubrics (Chapter wise) where BOLD CAPITAL grade remedies are mentioned:-

CONDITIONS OF AGGRAVATION AND AMELIORATION

1. BREATHING deeply, agg.: BRY.
2. COLD, amel.; uncovering or cold bathing or applications, amel., heat of bed, wraps, etc., agg.: LYC.
3. COUGHING, agg.: NUX-V.
4. DAMPNESS, feet to, bathed of or wet feet, agg.: PULS., SIL.
5. DRY, clear or cold weather, agg. (Comp. Vapor): ACO.
6. EMOTIONS, mental excitement, etc., agg. (Comp. Nervous effects.): ACO.
7. FOODS, DRINK, pork, agg.: PULS.
8. FROST, frost air, hoar frost, etc., agg. (Comp. Frostbite.): SEP.
9. LYING, on back, amel.: BRY., CALC-C., 
10. MOTION, beginning, agg., continued, amel.: RHUS-T.
11. PRESSURE, amel.: lying on painful or affected side, etc., amel.:  STAN.
12. PRESSION, spine, on, agg.: SIL.
13. SLEEP, during, agg.: OP.

GENERALITIES.

1. ALIVE SENSATION (Comp. Formication.): THU.
2. COLD, taking: CALC-C.
3. GRAYISH, dirty, etc.: PHOS.
4. HAEMORRHAGE, bloody discharges, etc.: PUL.
5. INJURIES, bones, to: RUT.
6. OLD AGE, senility: BAR-C., LACH., 
7. SECRETIONS, bland: PUL.
8. SORENESS, bruised smarting, etc. (Comp. Rawness.): NUX-V.
9. SPASMODIC OR CONVULSIVE EFFECTS, twitchings, jerks, etc. (Comp. Paroxysms.): KALI-C., LACH., 
10. THROBBING, universal, all over: GLO., PHO., PUL.
11. TICKLING, (itching) internal: IOD., NUX-V., PHO.

REGIONAL REPERTORY

MIND 

1. Hypochondria: NUX-V., 
2. INSENSIBLE, unconscious, etc. (Comp. Numbness.): OP,

 EYES

1. EYES: BELL., CALC-C.

NOSE AND ACCESSORY CAVITIES

1. ALAE, motions: LYC., PHO., 
2. CORYZA, stopped: NUX-V.
3. *EPISTAXIS: HAM.

 GUMS

1. SUPPURATING, pyorrhoea: PUL., 

TONGUE

1. DRY: BELL., 

MOUTH AND THROAT

1. RIGHT, to left: BELL., LYC., MERC-I-F.
2. LEFT, to right: LACH., RHUS-T., 
3. CHOKING, constriction, spasms, narrow, as if: NAJ.
4. ULCERS, aphthae, etc.: THU.

 THIRST

1.  VIOLENT, burning: VER-A.

 HICCOUGH

1. HICCOUGH: IGN.

RETCHING AND GAGGING:

1. RETCHING AND GAGGING: IP.

 VOMITING

1. PREGNANCY, agg.: LOB.,
2. PURGING, with: ARS., VER-A.

 FEMALE ORGANS

1. FEMALE ORGANS: SEP.

 RESPIRATION

1. RESPIRATION: LACH.

 COUGH

1. COUGH: DROS., HEP., PHO., PUL.

 CHEST AND LUNGS:

1. PNEUMONIA & BRONCHITIS, capillary: ANT-T.

 HEART, CIRCULATION AND PULSE

1. BLOOD VESSELS: PUL.

 LUMBAR REGION

1. LUMBAR REGION: NUX-V., RHUS-T.

After the repertory part is over, we checked for the remaining two parts for the grades as well.

If we see the second part of this book, which is, the Synopsis part, or the Materia Medica part, there the author has also given four grades. Though the first grade is rarely used, we could find some instances where it was noticeable.

E.g.: 

1. Antimonium Tarticum: SWEATY SKIN
2. Gelsemium Sempervirens:
3. Guaiacum: REGION: Secretions:TONSILS
4. Iris Versicolor: WORSE: Periodically:2-3 A.M.
5. Zincum Chromatum: WORSE:

 But In SRT (Supplemental Reference Table) only three grades are used –

• CAPITAL (Rarely – given in only 2-3 rubrics)
• Bold roman
• Roman

With this article, I hope we were able to clarify that there are four grades in Boger’s synoptic key. And we also hope to see the changes in major reference books, and competitive exams, so that the long held bias towards this repertory having three grades can be permanently removed. In any case, I hope this article was able to shed some light on the grading of Boger’s synoptic key.

REFERENCES

1. A SYNOPTIC KEY OF THE MATERIA MEDICA By Cyrus Maxwell BOGER. Homeoint.org. 2024. Available from: http://www.homeoint.org/books2/bogersyn/index.htm
2. A SYNOPTIC KEY OF THE MATERIA MEDICA | C. M. BOGER, NORBERT WINTER | B. JAIN | Pragationline.com. PragatiOnline Books. 2021 [cited 2025 Jul 27]. Available from: https://pragationline.com/a-synoptic-key-of-the-materia-medica-bjain/

Dr. Kajol Gupta
MD Repertory GHMC, Bhopal.
E-mail id – officialkgupta21@gmail.com
Co – authors- Dr. Anil Kumar Shukla, Dr. Mayank Patidar, Dr. Sushil Kumar Rajbhar

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