Review on Kent’s final general repertory of the materia medica

Dr Mable Pranitha Andrade 

Revised, corrected, augmented and edited by Pierre Schmidt & Dr. Diwan Harish Chand

Year of publication-1980

Interesting History
After the publication of  Kent’s repertory it became famous among the homoeopathic practitioners . Kent died after the publication of the 2^nd edition of his Repertory.  At the time of his death he left three hand written and corrected copies for the 3^rd edition of the repertory. One of this copy was passed on to Schmidt by his teachers Austin and Gladwin. Mittal had been to Schmidt to learn homoeopathy. But due to some misunderstandings between them Mittal took the Kent’s proof correction along with the corrected copy of Schmidt and came to India. From Mittal a person called by the name Mr.Shindoo made corrections in his repertory. This was taken by Harish Chand and later along with Pierre Schmidt it was published as Kent’s Final General Repertory, which is actually the 7^th edition of Kent’s repertory of the homoeopathic materia medica.

About the authors

Dr. Pierre Schmidt: He was born on 22^nd July 1894 at Geneva, Switzerland. After obtaining his medical degree studied Homœopathy mainly under Dr. Alfonso Eugenia Austin and Dr. Fredrica Gladwin.

 He brought into light Hahnemann’s 50 millesimal potencies  through his essay “The hidden treasurs of the last edition of Organon” in the British Journal of Homoeopathy.  His  library had collection of  rare books, like H.C.Allen’sKey Notes used by Dr. Austin with the additions made by him, Boenninghausen’s copy of theTherapeutic Pocket Book his additions, corrections, etc. and his laboratory included the latest machine for the making of potencies His great acts was the building up of the LIGA(Liga Medicorum Homoeopathic Internationalis ) in 1925,as one of the main founder. He has trained many homœopaths like Drs. Elizabeth Wright-Hubbard, Jost Künzli, Will Klunker, Diwan Harish Chand.

He died on 15 October 1987 at Tence, France.

Dr. Diwan Harish Chand: He was born on 7th March 1924 at Lahore.  His father, Dr. Diwan Jai Chand was one of the pioneers of homoeopathy in India. He practiced Homoeopathy over 54 years.

He completed his MBBS in Punjab and then went to England to do his post graduation in Homoeopathy.  His name has been included in the ‘Limca Book of Records as the first Asian President and later as the President of Honour of the ‘International Homoeopathic Medical League’.

He  represented Indian homeopathy for many years at the International Homeopathy Medical League (LMHI) and served as vice-president of the Central Council of Homoeopathy.  His practice and work in Homoeopathy over 54 years, conferred upon him more than 20 awards, both national and international as well as numerous honorary diplomas and fellowships. His literally  works like “A Compendium of Lectures on Homoeopathy; Micro-doses, Mega-results” (clinical cases) and “Homoeopathy in Geriatrics” and he co-edited Kent’s Final General Repertory with Dr. Pierre Schmidt.

He passed away on December 13th 2011.

Philosophical background :General to particular -Deductive logic 

Plan and construction 

Macro construction  

• Comments on Kent’s repertory in different journals
• Preface by Kent to Kent’s repertory
• Biography of J.T.Kent by Schmidt
• Preface by Pierre Schmidt and Dr.Diwan Harish Chand 
• Contents arranged alphabetically
• Contents arranged serially
• Remedies and their abbreviations

Number of chapters-39

Smell and voice are 2 new sections in comparison to Kent’s repertory 

Mind              Prostate gland

Vertigo           Urethra

Head              Urine

Eye                Genitalia male

Vision           Genitalia female

Ear                 Larynx & trachea

Hearing         Voice

Nose               Respiration

Smell             Cough

Face              Expectoation

Mouth           Chest

Teeth            Back

Throat-internal   Extremities

Throat-external   Sleep

Stomach             Chill

Abdomen         Fever

Rectum           Perspiration

Stool               Skin

Bladder           Generalities

Kidneys

Micro construction

• Rubrics are arranged in alphabetical order. 
• Symptoms in general of the whole part stands first.
• Modifications 

• • If there are 2 of the part as the eye, or if the   part as the Forehead, divided into parts.

First modification of the symptom is side

Right side

Left side

• • Second modification is time
  • If there is only one part and part is not divided,   then the modification by Time comes first.
  • These are followed in alphabetical order by the condition or circumstances which have produced aggravation or amelioration.

• Page is divided into 2 by a vertical line.
• Main rubric is always close to the marginal line and is printed in capital letters.
• Modifications of this are placed two spaces to the right and modification of the modification and remedy lines are placed four spaces to the right of the marginal lines.
• If the rubric is modified by extending somewhere the extension, instead of being placed in its alphabetical order, is placed after all of the other modifications.
• After all the modifications of the part as a whole have been considered, parts of the part are taken up.

The symptom in general is followed by its modifications by sides, time, circumstances, conditions & extension as far as possible.

Ex: Pain in the head

      Sides

     Time with circumstances

     Modification

     Extending 

     Parts of the head

           Sides 

           Time

           Modification

           Extending

   Kind of pain

       Sides

          Time

          Modification

          Extending

          Parts of the head

            Sides 

                   Time

                   Modification

                   Extending

• Gradation 

1^st grade  Bold 

2^nd grade  Italics

3^rd grade  ordinary roman

Special features

• Efforts have been made to not alter the page number from the original American edition of the Kent’s repertory. 
• Each chapter starts from a new fresh page.
• Many wrong shifting inwards or outwards of certain rubrics and sub rubrics.

Ex: page number 166 &167.

• Some of the grievous spelling mistakes were corrected.

 Ex: ‘On walking’ was corrected as ‘On waking’

• Cross references are given wherever needed.

 Use of bold letters-check in another section

         capital first letter-another main rubric       

     small letters-sub rubric of the same rubric

• If a rubric is carried over from a previous page or previous column, then a semicolon is used to show the continuity.
• New rubrics have been added.

MIND-Dementia

STOMACH-

    Drinks little during fever with dry lips

    Globus hystericus

GENERALITIES-

    Anaesthesia

           Restlessness >by motion

           Suppressed discharges nervous affection after

• Remedies which appeared in the text but missed in the list have been added.
• Many mistakes in the alphabetical arrangement of the list have been corrected.

Ex: Salicylicum acidum which appeared previously before Salmandra now appears after it.

• Attempt as been made in order to correct the wrong order in the list of remedies as well as in reportorial text based on the alphabetical order of abbreviation

Ex:Carb ac

     Carb an

     Carb h

     Carb o

     Carb s

     Carb v   

 Correct order

     Carb an (Carbo animalis)

     Carb veg (Carbo vegetabilis)

     Carb ac (Carbolium acidum)

      Carb h (Carboneum hydrogenisatum)

     Carb o (Carbo oxygenisatum)

     Carb s (Carbo sulphuratum)

• In some places if by adding specific names may disturb the alphabetical arrangement, then the specific part of the name is given in brackets.

Ex: Cuprum (metallicum) appear before

      Cuprum aceticum 

Scope 

1. Number of remedies are comparatively more than the number in Kent’s Repertory.
2. New rubrics have been added.
3. Corrected the spelling mistakes found in Kent’s Repertory.
4. Listed all remedies which were used in the text but missed out by Kent in his List of remedies.
5. Remedies as well as rubrics are arranged in the alphabetical order.
6. He tried to maintain the page number as same as that of Kent’s Repertory.

Limitations

1. No index.
2. As acknowledged by himself he has corrected many mistakes of Kent but knowingly has left many mistakes uncorrected.
3. There were many remedies proved after Kent’s time, which are not added.

• Remedies which are found

Only in Kent’s Repertory	Only in Final General Repertory
Apocynum androsaemifolium Balsamum peruvianum Cahinca Caltha palustris Chininum brom Chromium oxydatum Cocainum muriaticum Hedeoma pulegioides Ingluvin  Jacaranda gualandai Magnetis poli ambo Nux juglans	Adeps suis Alnus rubra Aralia hispida Aurum foliatum Bacillinum Benzoin odoriferum Cerium oxalicum Chininum muriaticum Euphorbia amygdaloides Ferrum carbonicum Fuligo ligni Gaultheria procumbens Kalagena Nabalus cerpentarius Polymnia uvedalia Prunus padus Saponinum Slag Spiraea ulmaria Tetradymitum

Bibliography 

1. Luthra Nidhi. “The Living Legend of Homoeopathy: Dr. Diwan Harish Chand”. Homoeopathy for all.17 october 2000. https://www.homoeopathyforall.com/articles/200010-17_the-living-legend-of-homoeopathy-dr-diwan-harish-chand_page-01.php

2. Srinivasan K S. “Dr.Pierre Schmidt-A tribute”. Centre for excellence in homoeopathy. http://www.homeoxls.com/Dr-P-Schmidt-A-Tribute.html

3. http://www.archibel.com/fileadmin/archibel/download/synthesis/Currim_Treasure_English.pdf
4. Schmidt Pierre, Chand Diwan Harish .Kent’s Final General Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. National Homoeopathic Pharmacy, 1982.
5. Kent, J.T. Kent’s repertory of  the homoeopathic materia mdeica. B Jain Publishers (P) Ltd, 2013.

Dr Mable Pranitha Andrade
PG SCHOLAR, Department of Case taking & Repertory,
Government Homoeopathic Medical College, Bengaluru.