Repertory Round-up, part 1

Let’s see what we can find hidden in the Repertory….

Welcome, everybody, to “Repertory Round-up!” This is an exciting new series where our lovely assistant, Shana…

Hi!

…will open up Murphy’s Repertory, 3rd ed., at random and surprise us with rubrics we may not have known existed!

Mom, don’t you think this is kind of boring? And isn’t it time for my pizza?

Our crabby assistant, Shana, will now randomly open the repertory. Drum roll please!

Mom!!!

I can hardly wait to see! And our first rubric is??????

Feet: uncover, inclination to

Good one, Shana! Everyone knows this rubric that Sulphur is so famous for, but no one knows where to find it! Well here it is! Other remedies in this rubric are: Medorrhinum, Pulsatilla, Chamomilla, Saniculla and a few others. OK, Shana, open the book and show us another one! What do you have for us this time?

Female: vaginal, discharge, leucorrhea (see vaginitis).

Now, this is a very common complaint! And you may not have realized that the subrubrics go on for pages!!!! This means that hearing that the patient has a vaginal discharge doesn’t really tell you anything unless you do an investigation of the subrubrics! Consider what some of them are:

acrid, excoriating

burning

brown

blistering

gushing

itching

jelly, like

cream, like

candida albicans

greenish yellow

while lying

menses, before

ropy, stringy

painless

offensive

orange

walking agg.

thin, watery

What this means is that this symptom, by itself, without further investigation, is useless! You need to ask for the following: Color, odor, consistency, sensation, the cause, the modalities (what makes it better or worse), the time modality (does it only happen at night? once a month, etc.?) Does it leave a stain of some color? A stiffness of the clothing material? Is there a diagnosis? And you know, if you can’t figure out what remedy to give, or if none of your remedies work, you can always make a remedy out of the discharge! (See my article, “How To Make Your Own Remedy”: https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/how-to-make-your-own-remedy/)

And now for our next exciting rubric, we have…….? Shana? Hello!!!!!

Okaaaaaaaay!

And the winner is:

Mind: please others, desires to.

Oh! This is a good one! We’ve all seen people like this! They don’t stand up for themselves, they get manipulated into doing things they don’t want to do, they say “yes” to everything, they get taken advantage of….am I right? Can you guess what remedies I’m talking about? Oprah Winfrey used to call this “The Please Disease”–a need to be agreeable at all costs. My first thoughts are:

Staphysagria

Carcinosin

Pulsatilla

Baryta carb.

Thuja

And yes, they’re all there! It’s a small rubric, only 8 remedies.

OK, Shana, open the book again! What is it this time?

I’m opening, and….the rubric is….

Generals: night air agg.

That’s a good one!

What’s so great about it?

Remember the night you woke up sniffing and coughing and I realized the windows were open? That was “Night air aggravates”! There are only 7 remedies, and I believe I gave you Carbo-veg., which was one of them, and it worked! Also, the rubric right below that is a good one too, read it.

Generals: Night-watching, ailments from

What’s “night-watching”?

Shana, a lot of people need a remedy from this rubric! It means you’ve been up worrying and fussing over a sick child and you’re losing sleep and not eating and your whole system is being thrown off! Gee, I wonder how I know all this? The main remedy to think of is Cocculus.

I see…….Do you want me to find another rubric?

If you can, please do!

Mind: dignified disposition

That’s a good one, Shana; what are the remedies?

Kali carb, Nat-mur and Platina.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? What’s next?

Mind: affectionate

OK, let me guess the main ones: Pulsatilla, Phosphorus, Carcinosin, Staphysagria, Medorrhinum….um…….what else?

Hyoscyamus, Ignatia…..

Oh, right! But Hyoscaymus kind of creeps people out with their “affection”! What else have we got?

Mind: adulterous

Let me guess….Lycopodium, Medorrhinum, Lachesis…

…Pulsatilla, Staphysagria….

What are they doing there? Pulsatilla is probably very flirtatious as they require constant attention, Staphysagria thrives on praise and never-ending reassurance that they’re the greatest, most wonderful and best of all human beings, to compensate for, no doubt, their history of abusive treatment and insults in childhood, so, the more lovers, or fawners, the better, apparently……What else have you got?

Mind: agility, mental

Mental agility! That’s a new one on me! I guess a very quick and clever mind. What’s the main remedy?

Coffea.

Wonderful! Yes, they’re full of creative ideas! Give me another one.

Hearing: noises

This is the rubric for ringing in the ears and other noises as well because it’s not always “ringing”, per se. The subrubrics go on forever! Page after page! Here are some of them to give you an idea:

bed, driving one out of bed

bells

blowing nose, when

boiling water, like

bursting of a bubble

buzzing

chirping

falling asleep, when

hissing

hammering

gurgling

…you get the idea. It’s very extensive! If someone tells you they have ringing in the ears, you have to say, “What does it sound like, exactly? When does it happen? What does it make you do?” Shana, what’s next?

Bladder: urging, frequent

This is a complaint a lot of people have–frequent urging to urinate. Again, the subrubrics go on forever! Here’s an example of some of them:

menses, during

menopause

heart complaints, with

ineffectual

lifting, after

lying agg.

painful

standing amel.

night

sudden

walking, while

violent

So again, just hearing this complaint is not enough, you have to know what the sensation is, the modalities, the time modality, the cause, the concomitant symptom; ask what they’re eating and drinking. Certain foods and drinks are diuretics, like coffee, beer, tea and watermelon. This could be the whole problem! Shana, what’s next?

Intestines, distention

This is your “gas and bloating” rubric Lycopodium is so famous for! But, once again, the subrubrics go on forever! Here’s a sample of them:

belching amel.

beer, after

breathing, hindering

coffee agg.

coffee amel.

after drinking

while eating

with emaciation

ileo-cecal region

inguinal region

after milk

painful

tympanitic

umbilical

from water

And now, here’s your other “gas and bloating” rubric: Intestines: flatus. Again, check the subrubrics; for example, the one that Thuja is so famous for: Intestines: flatus, noises, crying of an animal, like. And now, if the gas is pressing upwards making it hard to breathe, what is the rubric? Intestines: flatus, pressing, upward. And what would you think the remedy would be? Carbo veg! Shana, your turn!

Generals: air, indoor air agg.

This is our big Pulsatilla rubric isn’t it? Remember? “Worse warm stuffy rooms”? This is the rubric! What else would you expect to find here? Lachesis! Doesn’t Lachesis have a big issue with suffocating? They hate flying in planes because of this, the lack of fresh air. As you might expect, Sulphur is there too, and I can’t believe Allium cepa isn’t here! Boy, is that a mistake! I’m telling you, people, the Repertory is not “complete” and it’s not finished; it’s why we can’t always do a straight up and down repertorization and say the “winner” is the obvious remedy. The actual winner could be in the number-3 position, or number-4. You have to consider at least the top 5. Shana, next!!!

Nose: coryza

Brilliant! Do you know what this is? It’s our rubric for the common cold! There should be an entry in Generals that says, “cold, common cold, see Nose, coryza.” There should be an entry in Nose that says, “runny nose, see ‘coryza'”. For heaven’s sake! Why should it be so hard to find the common cold in the Repertory? And again, the subrubrics are extensive, there are 5 pages of them. Also, see Nose: Discharge as a companion to Nose: coryza; and Nose: obstruction for “stuffy nose”, and again, see all the subrubrics. ShaaaaaaaaaaNaaaaaaaa…………

Mom, haven’t you done enough?

One more!

OK, but then it’s off to bed with you!

Mind: Aversions

I love this rubric!!!!! It gives a whole list of things people have an aversion to! Here’s the one Sepia is so famous for: “aversion, children, dislikes her own”. Here’s the other one: “aversion, husband, to her”. Here are some more in the “aversions” rubric:

to herself

to marriage

to school

to society

to water

to his wife

to family members

to darkness

to bathing

to being approached

to bright colors

to black

to darkness

to fuss

Guess what remedy the last one is? Who doesn’t like to be fussed over? Nat-mur, of course! OK, Shana’s chasing me off the computer! I hope you enjoyed tripping through the Repertory with me. Maybe we’ll do this again some day. Until then this is Elaine Lewis in Studio A at the beautiful downtown Hpathy amphitheater, saying Good night, and good news!

Mom, that was Ted Baxter’s tag line as the News Anchor on the Mary Tyler Moore Show!

It was?