Repertories have come a long way since the time of Dr. Hahnemann with more than 200 repertories available as of today.
- Repertories have been classified according to:
- Appearances (book, card, software)
- Internal formatting (logical, puritan)
- General repertories (based on inductive and deductive logic)
- Regional & particular repertories, and so on.
Each of them hold importance in their own specific way and the selection of the repertory ultimately lies on the acumen of the homeopath.
Knerr’s Repertory belongs to Puritan group of repertory as well as Concordances. It is an index to Hering’s Guiding Symptoms of Materia Medica, making it a Concordance; while the language of the symptoms are maintained in the purest form precisely as described and recorded in the words of provers as well as clinicians making it a Puritan Repertory.
Puritan repertories such as Knerr’s may not be necessarily used for systematic repertorization, but can be used for reference purposes. Knerr’s repertory has 48 chapters which are very well arranged.
There are few extra chapters which are not found in other repertories separately e.g.
- PREGNANCY, PARTURITION, LACTATION
- HEART, PULSE AND CIRCULATION.
- LIMBS IN GENERAL.
- NERVES
- TIME
- ATTACKS, PERIODICITY
- LOCALITY AND DIRECTION.
- TOUCH, PASSIVE MOTION, INJURIES.
- STAGES OF LIFE AND CONSTITUTION
Selecting rubrics from these chapters directly help save a lot of time and the search becomes refined as well. These chapters give a valuable information and crucial material to work upon. For example: to select modalities such as aggravation due to change of position, you can select the rubric as follows:
There is one more special addition of a chapter, Stages of Life & Constitution where rubrics are classified according to the age (child, young or old), sex, complexion, constitution (or diathesis such as cancerous or gouty etc.) Even the diatheses are further classified, such as Rheumatic, Abuse of Alcohol.
This repertory has a lot of clinical rubrics especially associated to age, sex and pathology. Knerr’s repertory is especially used for clinical pathologies: For example:
- Tissues, Emaciation, Convulsions, Hydrocephaloid, in: Zinc
- Constitution, Cachexia, Helminthiasis: Cina
- Heart, Pulse & Circulation: Blood: Anaemia, Bright’s disease, in acute: Apis
- Inner chest: Angina Pectoris: Fatty degeneration of heart, with: Kalmia Latifolia
Repertories such as Knerr’s help immensely while narrowing and finalizing the remedy provided they are used wisely. A number of examples of rubrics such as these can be cited; however a homeopath must be knowledgeable enough to understand which, what, when and how the rubrics should be selected. This can happen only after an unprejudiced case taking, right perception of the case and interpreting it correctly.
Knerr’s repertory is available in HOMPATH software which is the most favoured among the global homeopaths. With 37 repertories on its shelf, Hompath is a complete tool for excellent repertorization, quick and successful solving of cases and a successful practice.