BOENNINGHAUSEN’S CHARACTERISTIC MATERIA MEDICA AND REPERTORY –

C.M. BOGER

PREFACE

It gives me great pleasure to be able to present the essentials of the masterpieces

Boenninghausen, condensed into one volume, to the profession. The “THERAPEUTIC
POCKET BOOK” is easily the foremost of these; an annotated copy presented by the author to
the late Dr. Carrol Dunham later became the property of Dr. H N. Guernsey and is now in the
possession of his son. Dr. Joseph C. Guernsey, whose courtesy enables me to incorporate, it in
its entirety in the present work.

The Materia Medica part consists of the “Characteristics”, now translated as such for the
first time, the "'Whooping Cough,” the "Domestic Physician,” therapeutic hints gleaned from the
“Aphorisms of Hippocrates,” and the symptom text of the "Intermittent Fever." For purposes of
comparison the 'Allied Remedies" are added at the end of each remedy; they were the result of
long years of observation on the part of Boenninghausen and largely supplemented the
"Concordances." It has been my aim to arrange and sift the matter in a way that would avoid all
needless repetition, as well as to render the most expressive sentences as accurately as
possible, while preserving their essential meaning. The periodic homoeopathic literature of
Boenninghausen's time contains many communications from him and large numbers of hints
from this source have been incorporated in the text.

In order to enhance the value of a book intended for ready reference, I have thought it
best to add the following remedies: Aloes, Apis, Argentum nitricum, Borax, Bromium, Calcarea
phosphorica, Fluoricum acidum, Gelsemium, Glonoinum, Kali Bichromicum, Kreosotum,
Mercurius Corrosivus, Natrum sulphuricum, Phytolacca, Podophyllum, Psorinum and Tabacum.
These, in very considerable measure, represent the advance in our Materia Medics, since
Boenninghausen passed away.

The Repertory embraces the "Pocketbook" the "Apsoric" and the "Antipsoric" repertories,
the "Sides of the Body," the repertory part of the "Intermittent Fever” and of "Whooping Cough,"
as well as a large number of paragraphs from the "Aphorisms of Hippocrates," properly
designated additions have been made from the exigencies of daily practice, but no clinical
symptoms have been thus admitted.

ON THE USE OF REPERTORIES

A Repertory is essentially an index and may be advantageously used as such for discovering
particular symptoms as well as for grouping remedies containing similar combinations in their
pathogeneses. The latter, as it insures an unique comprehensiveness of grasp, is by far its most
important use. Such groups are often large, and when so, are necessarily thinned out by
eliminating all the remedies which lack the essential, general and special-regional-conditions. It
should be borne in mind that the Conditions, especially if regional, are apt to modify almost any
symptoms that the remedy may possess. This subject is further elucidated by the following
article which is abridged from an article entitled "A Critical Review of the Value of Symptoms."
published by Boenninghausen in the Allgemeine Homoeopathic Zeitung, Vol. LX., page 73.

CHOOSING THE REMEDY

Hahnemann, in aphorism 152 of the Organon, gives explicit directions for its selection;
he tells us how the choice should he made from among the drugs which exhibit effects
simulating those of the whole disease picture at hand and shows how the final differentiation
depends upon the individualistic or peculiar symptoms. A truly scientific procedure.

The interpretation of what constitutes a striking or singular symptom, expect as pointed

out in aphorism 86 and the following, is left to the judgment of the physician, but is elucidated in
the following seven considerations:

1.Changes of personality and temperament are particularly to be noted, especially, when

striking alterations, even if rare, occur; the latter often supplant or by their prominence may
obscure the physical manifestations and consequently correspond to but few remedies. Taking
written notes of every case gradually drills the mind into recognizing types (personalities) and
their corresponding remedies.

The expressions of the intellectual and moral proclivities are inter-dependent and their
combined character affords the best and almost sole indication in the choice of remedies for
mental affections.

2.It is self evident that the nature and peculiarities of disease, as well as the virtues of
drugs, must be thoroughly known before we can hope to give practical aid in sickness. The
homoeopath soon realizes that for him everything in medicine is generalized too much; the most
diverse diseases needing quite different remedies are designated by a common title which
excludes every precise indication that might lead to the most suitable remedy hence he can
make only a limited use of diagnosis. For the same reason every allopath orders a different
medicine or mixes his drugs to cover the various indications.

The most accurate and indubitable diagnosis of a disease form as depicted in

pathological (allopathic) treatises can seldom or never suffice for the sure selection of the
similar (homoeopathic) remedy in a concrete case. It can, at most, but not invariably, serve to
exclude from the comparison all medicines which do not correspond to the nature of the
disease, but which on the contrary seem to expend themselves upon other parts of the living
organism.

3. The seat of the disease frequently points to the decisive indications, for almost every
drug acts more definitely upon certain parts of the organism, the whole body seldom being
affected equally, even in kinds; differences occur in the so-called local disease, as well in the
affections designated as general; such as gout and rheumatism. At times the right, then again
the left side suffers more, or the pains may appear diagonally, etc., etc.
 The amount of attention to be given to the affected part is necessarily proportioned to
the magnitude of the general illness of which it is a portion. Such general terms, therefore, as
headache, toothache, bellyache, etc., even when the nature of the pains is expressed, cannot
contribute even the least towards a rational choice of the remedy.

It is essential to ascertain the seat of the local disease with accuracy; for every
experienced homoeopath knows how, in toothache for instance, it is necessary to select the
remedy which in its provings has repeatedly acted upon every tooth that suffers. The specific
curative power of Sepia in those stubborn and sometimes fatal joint abscesses of the fingers
and toes is extraordinarily conclusive evidence upon this point, for they differ from similar
gatherings in location only while the remedies so suitable for abscess elsewhere remain
ineffectual here.

Had the niceties of physical diagnosis of our times been known during the age of
Hahnemann he would doubtless have localized his remedies more accurately than merely
giving such vague designations, as above, below, right or left, etc. It would become our
contemporaries infinitely better to fill up these gaps than to keep on repeating well known
symptoms or discovering others which are almost invariably of no importance.

In the treatment of disease the value of modern methods is far less therapeutic than
prognostic. The internal physical signs and objective material changes never represent the
dynamic disease but are its product, developing as it progresses. When, as is often possible,
such disorganizations can be nipped in the bud by well selected remedies it is unpardonable to
await their appreciable ravages. This is equally true of homoeopathic prophylaxis.

4. In finding the simillimum for the whole case the concomitants above all demand the
most thorough examination. While carefully elucidated characteristic strikingly portray the
leading features of a case they are always modified by the peculiarities of the relief before the
picture can be said to be accurate. Common-place or well known accompaniments are
unimportant unless they are present in an extraordinary degree or appear in a singular manner

We must, therefore, examine carefully all those accessory symptoms which are:

(A) Rarely found combined with the main affection, hence also infrequent under the
same condition in the proving.
(B) All those belonging to Another sphere of disease than that of the main one
(C) Finally those which bear the distinctive marks of some drug, even if they have never
before been noted in the preceding relation.
A concomitant may so distinctly and decidedly depict the nature of a drug, and
consequently indicate it, as to acquire an importance far outranking the symptoms of the main
disease; it then points to the most suitable medicine. Such symptoms above all others evidently
belong to those which Hahnemann called striking, extraordinary, and peculiar (characteristic)
and are to receive our almost exclusive attention because they lend their individuality to the
totality. A number of efficient and partly specific remedies for various disorders are almost solely
discoverable from among them because the disease symptoms proper, for lack of peculiarities,
offer no possible assistance in the choice. The system of concomitants also makes
Homoeopathy distinctly safer, rendering it less dependent upon a previously constructed
diagnosis which is often deceptive
5. The cause. Pathological explanations and speculations are too far removed from our
entirely practical method to have any great value in a therapy and cure. Diseases are logically
divided into internal and external. The former arise from the natural disposition, which is
sometimes highly susceptible (idiosyncrasy). That latter can excite disease principally by means
of external impressions, when there is already a natural predisposition thereto.

The modified natural tendency to disease depends, according to Hahnemann, upon the
uneradicated miasms of psora, syphilis and sycosis. When it does not originate in these it is
mostly composed of remnants and sequels of the acute affections which so largely go to make
up drug diseases and poisonings; but we not infrequently see both factors combine to
undermine the health, thus presenting a proportionately deeper rooted disease just that much
harder to combat. In such cases antipsoric remedies very much excel all others in efficacy. (The
scrofulous diathesis-psora-is constantly being extended by the practice of vaccination; our view
of the matter receives confirmation from the fact that in very many cases of such diseases which
are essentially acute in character it is only by the administration of our so-called antipsoric
remedies that rapid and durable cures can be effected.) Preface to Whooping Cough.

Whether or not we believe the psoric theory, the fact remains that the best selected
remedy is often ineffectual unless preceded by the proper antipsoric, antisycotic or antisyphilitic,
as the case may be, but because elf their almost identical symptom lists it is generally chosen
with difficulty by differentiating and searching out the few true characteristics.

Drug diseases and poisonings do not differ in their health destroying powder. The drug
given should be ascertained and properly antidoted. Simple poisons are easily detected by their
effects but a drug disease is generally a compound result which fails to show a clear and
accurate picture, hence a knowledge of the contents of former prescription taken is a necessity
and lightens the labor.

Practice has extracted and rendered the anamnesic symptoms easy of access, thus
greatly restricting the list from which the selection is to he made no that, attention to but a few
characteristics quickly determines an accurate choice. This is especially true of sprains, bruises,
burns, etc. Colds are more complicated because of the diverse manner in which they are
contracted and the different parts which they affect point to different remedies; for instance, it
makes a great difference whether they are contracted while sweating, by exposure of a part,
being drenched all over or party, etc. Various remedies must be considered according to
whether the symptoms localize themselves internally (stomach, chest, abdomen, etc.) or
externally (head, feet, back, etc.). Such remedies are not to be too readily thrown aside unless
certainly found dissimilar in other respects. – So much depends upon a knowledge of the cause
(Anamnesis) of disease, that without it the choice of a homoeopathic remedy made with safety:
Aphorisms of Hippocrates, VII., 12.

Homoeopathic prophylactics are tested and sure. The very remedies which cure the fully
developed disease will protect exposed persons. This is very important for the reason that
incipient diseases are generally very lacking in the characteristics which determine the choice.
 6. The Modalities are the proper and most decisive modifiers of the characteristics, not
one of which is utterly worthless, not even the negative ones. They have developed in
importance with the growth of Homoeopathy.

A superficial examination of any completely proven drug will reveal the common
symptoms of all diseases, such as headache, bellyache, diarrhoea, eruptions etc, etc. A little
closer inspection of their sensations and relations to the different parts of the body establishes
undoubted difference in the manner of their appearance, the modality. All experienced
homoeopaths pay great attention to this point. It is self evident that the modality must be
specialized; it is not sufficient, for instance, to note the general effect of motion in a given case,
but the various kinds of motion and whether they arise during continued or at the start of
movement must be known. Likewise, the general effect of position, such as lying on the side,
back, crosswise, horizontally, etc. as well as the special discomfort or ease caused from lying
on the painful or painless side; must be elicited in order to apply the most suitable remedy.

The cravings and aversions to various foods furnish some of the most important points in
deciding upon the remedy.

When the symptoms seem to point out a particular remedy with which the modalities,
however do not agree it is only negatively indicated and the physician has the most urgent
reason to doubt its fitness; he should therefore, seek for another having the same symptoms.

7. The time is hardly less important than the aggravation and amelioration itself and
could be of great use were the different stages of disease left undisfigured by drug influences,
for they constantly produce the most devious effects upon the natural course of disease. I hope
no one will say that periodicity necessarily indicates Cinchona (Quinine), for there is hardly a
single homoeopath who has not treated numerous victims of this error. This homoeopathic
objective concerns two points which have a direct bearing upon the choice of the remedy.

A. The periodical return of the symptoms after a shorter or longer period of quiescence.
B. The hour of the day when they are better or worse

The former coincides with, epochs having special accidental causes such as menstrual
disturbances, all seasonal or temperatural influences, etc. Where it is impossible to discover
such secondary causes, or where, as is usually the case, their time of recurrence is not more
accurately designated they have no value for homoeopaths because they are lacking in precise
indications.

The general or special modalities referable to the time of day are of much greater
importance, for hardly any disease lacks this feature and the provings supply the same
peculiarity, qualifying them for the best and most comprehensive uses. To illustrate this we need
only refer to influences which the time of day exerts upon coughs, diarrhoeas, etc. A
considerable list of remedies exhibit typically recurrent effect, unless these are clear and
decided (like Hell. and Lycopod. at 4-8 P.M.) or return at exactly the same hour (Ant.c.,
Ign.,Saba.) they are unimportant.
 (In general, the tyro in Homoeopathy cannot too earnestly take to heart the caution to avoid
the great error of regarding a numerically large mass of symptoms that are general in their
character, but do not individualize the case, as a sufficient guide in choosing the remedy. The
keen perception and appreciation of those symptoms, which at the same time, correspond to
the nature of the disease and also designate the remedy which is exclusively or at least most
decidedly indicated – this alone betokens the master mind. For it is easier – very much easier –
to select the right remedy after a picture of the disease, complete in every respect and fully
meeting all requirements, has been drawn up, than to obtain the materials for such a picture and
construct it for oneself.) From the Preface of the Whooping Cough.

THE REPETITION OF THE DOSE

Medicines, by proper (higher) potentization, develop a continually widening, quicker and

more radical sphere of action which stretches far beyond all pathological forms but never
outgrows their own true characteristics. This should however not lead us into straining at
conclusions and making blind applications of this postulate.

A single dose of the properly selected homoeopathic remedy will in a short time so
transform the character of a disease as to cause it to show indications for a different remedy.
The common experience that the continued thoughtless and injudicious use of the same
medicine often dose more harm than good, and that two very similar remedies do not follow
each other well, has its origin in this fact.

The primary and secondary action of many drugs repeats itself alternately, hence long
as this happens, the one (first) dose has not exhausted its action

In diseases like small-pox, scarlet fever, etc. which generally attack man only once,
every repetition particularly of the higher dynamizations only tend to prejudice or retard the cure,
whereas in other disease it regulates itself by the extent of their liability to recure.

In every attack one minute dose of the rightly chosen remedy if allowed to quickly
expend itself not only accomplishes everything to be expected of medicine but when the same
drug is after a long time again given as evidently the most applicable remedy even for another
disease, it disappoints us and will only act after a sufficient time has elapsed for the former dose
to have finished its work.

In chronic disease the action of the truly legitimate (similar) remedy must be left
undisturbed if we wish to attain success.

External manifestation are in no ways indispensable to the existence of chronic disease;

on the contrary the more the external (vacarious) symptoms are disturbed or repressed the
deeper do they take root and flourish internally. It follows from the dynamic nature and
constitution of every real disease that it is never purely local, but always finds its genesis in the
immaterial lift force, therefore in the whole living organism and can only be rooted out as fast as
the increasing vital reaction displaces the primary drug action: most rapidly towards the end.
Abstracted from the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. VII.12
 In conclusion it may not be useless to call to memory, in an abridged form, what my
worthy friend. Dr J. Aegidi says in the Archive of Homoeopathy (XII. I I.,121). which coincides
entirely with my own experience after the administration of the carefully selected (according to
the similarity of the symptoms) remedy as early at the latest as after the lapse of eight days (in
acute sickness often already after a few hours), one of two events certainly follows either.

A. The state of the illness is changed or

B. It remains the same.

A change in the sick condition embraces three events either

1st. The condition is ameliorated.

2nd It is aggravated, or

3rd The disease alters its symptom complex.

In the first case one sees the medicine's beneficial action penetrating deeply and it were,
therefore hasty not to wait the fullest extent of the amelioration. Here at least haste is useless,
mostly harmful and only then when the improvement comes to a visible standstill is it advisable
to give a second, third or fourth dose of the same remedy especially however, only as long as
lessening but not essentially changed symptom complex still points to it.

In the second event we see the state of the sickness becoming worse: particularly do the
characteristic symptoms heighten their intensity without changing or transposing themselves the
so-called homoeopathic aggravation. Here the remedy has overcome the affection in its
essence and for a while nothing further is to be done unless perhaps entirely too important
complaints make the application of a proper antidote necessary. which on most occasions is
found in a second, and if possible, still smaller dose of the same medicine.

The third instance concerns an alteration of the symptom complex and is evidence
when this happens that the remedy was not fittingly chosen and must he exchanged for a
suitable one as soon as possible..

When notwithstanding the carefully chosen remedy and the patient's faultless diet, the
sick condition on the contrary is not at all changed as in the case mentioned under B the cause
usually lies in want of receptivity Which we must seek to remove either by repeated small dose
or by medicines recommended for deficient reaction.

By following these rules we have the pleasure of assisting the sick to recovery in an
incomparably shorter time than has commonly been possible under the former evil treatment
where the physician lacked a fixed rule of practice_ From the Preface the Antipsoric repertory.

The repetition of the dose is determined by, the nature and force of the response
elicited, this response reveals the actual status of the patient in proportion to the accuracy of the
prescription. The speed of the reaction is naturally governed by the course of the individual
affection plus the vital reactive power of the individual hence it follows that a quick relief in
chronic disease bodes no good if the remedy has been properly chosen.
 No second dose should be given as long as the relief progresses even though slightly
the amelioration is apt to show itself in the mental state first the mind becomes more tranquil
and the suffering is more easily born although its intensity may as yet not be lessened.

In a real cure the symptoms recede from above downward, from within outward and in
the reverse order of their coming: all other ways are irregular and open to suspicion of being
mere palliations calculated to destroy the natural symmetry of the manifestations hence to
complicate and tender the disease intractible.

THE HOMOEOPATHIC PROGNOSIS

Homoeopathics, besides knowing all that the allopaths do of diagnosis possess the most
trustworthy signs derived from the behavior of the remedy.

Experience teaches that whenever the quite correctly and fittingly chosen remedy is
applied and operates within the sphere corresponding to its action, hence excites the necessary
reaction, the overthrow of the disease is naturally to be expected. If on the contrary the reaction
remains absent or symptoms, which are foreign thereto appear during the operation of the drug
the prognosis is most grave, even if not apparently so.

In order to profit by examples of such phenomena it is absolutely necessary to have an

accurate knowledge of the powers of every medicine even down to their finest shades of
difference as well as to see to it that only one remedy is administered at a time aphorisms of
Hippocrates. 11, 19 also I, pages 12-13.

The signs used in this work are:

The * used to designate paragraphs from the Pocket Book as altered by the Dunham
copy

The † used to mark new paragraphs whose introduction, it is hoped will help in the
selection of the simillimum.

This attached to single abbreviations and indicates that the remedy so marked has been
inseredas a true pathogenetic symptom.

This work is now introduced to the profession with the hope that it will be found an ever
ready aid in finding the most similar remedy: such I have found it to be, and I am anxious that
my professional brethren shall share its benefits with me. That it is either entirely exhaustive of
the subject or perfect I do not claim but that it is a help of no mean value I am certain.

Parkersburg, W. Va,, June 15, 1905.

C. M. BOGER.