Hahnemann’s Organon Of Medicine with Word Meanings by Dr. Mahendra Singh & Dr. Subhas Singh

The first corrected, re-translated and redacted edition of Hahnemann’s Organon of Medicine with Word Meanings, discussed below, has each aphorism written by Dr. Mahendra Singh and Dr. Subhas Singh. It was published by Homoeopathic Publications, Kolkata and released on 1^st March 2015. The book is an improved version of the earlier work by the authors under the same title but with the addition of word meanings of English and non-English words in the most commonly read 5^th and 6^th editions of Organon of Medicine.

Some salient features of the book are:

• Detailed and contextual Word Meanings of difficult English words as well as non-English words of the Preface, Introduction, Aphorisms and Appendix have been given along with some explanatory notes, whenever required for more clear understanding of the word.

• The errors of Dr. Hahnemann in facts and editing have been corrected. Errors of Dudgeon in translation, information and editing, Boericke’s errors of translation, editing, commission and omission and anomalies of the American, German, and Indian publishers have been corrected.

• Hahnemann in each of his editions of Organon, divided his Introduction into chapters by a closing line (-) at the end of the chapter. R.E. Dudgeon removed the closing line and instead indicated the end of the chapter by an increased gap between the paragraphs. The increased gap system was not followed by Dr. Boericke which was copied by all Indian publishers. As was done by Hahnemann, in this book the chapters have been separated by a closing sign (-) at the end of the chapter.

• For the first time in the history of Homoeopathic literature, the authors compiled and completed a comparative tabular chart of the paragraphs of the Introduction to the different editions of the Organon and placed it in the Appendix.

• Without disturbing Hahnemann’s arrangement, the footnotes are arranged for convenience in study and also to allot proper place for word meanings. The footnotes have been given a serial number as a whole and also separate serial numbers have been given for the footnotes of 5^th edition and 6^th The footnotes have been marked in such a way that at a glance its serial number in the total number of footnotes, its serial number in the particular edition of Organon and attachment to the particular paragraph or aphorism can be understood.

According to the co-author Dr. Subhas Singh, the main objective of publishing an enhanced version of an already popular book was to make ‘Hahnemann’s Organon lucid and comprehensible’ for the reader. The author has correctly observed that one of the major difficulties faced by students of Organon of Medicine is the inability to comprehend the exact meaning of certain difficult words in the particular context being referred to in the text. As an example, the word abstract has many meanings in the dictionary but in the footnote in Aphorism 1 it means something that is difficult to understand or comprehend, in reference to the Old School of Medicine being practiced at that time, whose theories were difficult to understand by lay people. This book has been written keeping in mind the requirements of an average BHMS student in India or in any country, for whom English is not the primary language of communication or is not the mother tongue. The authors have thus given a precious gift to the homoeopathic world in the form of this book.

Moreover, the terminology used by R.E. Dudgeon during the translation of the 5^th edition in late 19^th century is now obsolete and difficult to find in modern dictionaries. Even though there are a few books which give the meaning of difficult English and Non-English words in the Organon, none of them is complete. This book is easier to consult because the word meanings have been given below each aphorism and that too in alphabetical order, thus reducing the time to look up a word. The authors have also included the word meanings of the 99 paragraphs of the Introduction to Organon of Medicine.

The typography of the aphorisms and the word meanings has been kept different so as to make it easier for the reader to find the word meanings even with a cursory view.

Like the previous edition, this book is the first ever redacted, re-translated and corrected version of the Organon of Medicine, which makes it suitable for both Undergraduate as well as Postgraduate students.

There is the repetition of certain common words throughout the text in this book. This has been done to make it easier for the reader to look up a word without turning pages.

It is the only book of its kind ever printed in Homoeopathy. It is expected that with this book, notebooks and guidebooks on Organon of Medicine will no longer be needed. At the same time, it is expected that this book will remove much of the confusion and wrong notions in Homoeopathy like Materia peccans, accompanying modalities etc.

Overall the book is a good attempt by the authors to make Organon of Medicine more comprehensible and easier to study. It will be very useful for all serious students of Organon of Medicine who have struggled with the tough words of Hahnemann translated by Dudgeon and Boericke. It can even be used by teachers as a reference book.

Published by: Homoeopathic Publications,

1, Raja Raj Narayan Street, Kolkata – 700 006 (W.B.)

Price: Rs. 500.00 (Five hundred only)