Ailments & Complaints before during & after in Homeopathy

Book review by Dr C Abdul Gafoor. BHMS,MD(Hom)

Name of the book : Ailments & Complaints before, during & after In Homeopathy
Author – Dr. Ramnlal. P. Patel
Publishers – Sai Homoeopathic Book Corporation, CMS. College Road , Kottayam, Koala
Year of Publishing – 1999
No of Pages -191
Price -120 Rs.

About the author:
Dr. Ramanlal P. Patel is one of the eminent practitioners in Kerala. He is the Ex – principal of Athurashramam Homeopathic Medical college, Kottayam . He is now the member of scientific advisory committee CCRH New Delhi, member of Cancer control society USA & also enjoying various positions in Homoeopathic system in India & abroad. His important works are

1. Art of case taking & practical repertorisation in homeopathy
2. Analysis & evaluation of symptoms
3. Tautopathy
4. Word index to Kent’s repertory with rubrics
5. Auto visual homeopathic repertory &, autovisual miasmatic repertory
6. Kent’s repertory of homoeopathic materia medica ( corrected &improved 6th American edition)

Contents of the boock:

1. preface
2. ailments and complaints before – page No. 1-25
3. ailments and complaints during – ,, 26-95
4. ailments and complaints after – ,, 96-191

Preface:
In the preface he explains -what made him to construct this book .The work is based on Kents repertory of homeopathic materia medica 6th edition. He highlights the importance of ” the symptoms that cannot be explained”. Complaints or ailments before, during & after an event or episode may help the physician to find out the simillimum. He gives one case of chronic headache after repeated injuries cured by Arnica as an example.

Another feature of the preface is that Dr. Patel criticizes the modern repertories like Synthesis as having many mistakes. Additional rubrics & remedies are doubtful additions copied from one to the other without verification & confirmation. Mistakes are made even in grading of remedies while copying them. He is putting an example the rubric – Absent minded without mentioning the name of the repertory Certain repertories are having symptoms & remedies which are not found in the source book mentioned. Even certain source books are found to be not available or printed anywhere at anytime.

Arrangement of the rubric:
There are 3 sections in the book
1. ailments & complaints before
2. ailments & complaints during
3. ailments & complaints after

Rubrics are arranged alphabetically under each chapter in the same pattern as that of Kent’s repertory ( from mind to Generalities). Chapter with page no. is given at the right hand side of each rubric in the following manner

CHAPTER Page No.
ANGER, convulsion, before: Bufo MIND 2
FOGGY, motion, during: Con VISION 279

Merits:

• This book is of great use as a ready reference.
• Book is useful in cases where modalities are clearly known as in acute diseases.
• All the rubrics ere given along with the chapter name & page no, of the original textbook, that is Kent’s repertory.

Demerits:
1. No main heading representing a chapter . So it is difficult to find out a rubric in a particular chapter.
2. list of medicines are not given
3. Full name of the abbreviations are not given
4. Total number of medicines in the book is not given
5. This book cannot be used in working out the case but only for reference
6. Though the author retains the grading followed by Dr. Kent, the letters representing the different grades has been changed.

1st grade – capital bold in Kent’s it is small bold letter
2nd grade – italics bold ” ordinary italics
3rd grade – ordinay small letter ” ordinary small

Criticism:
On looking into the overall work it can be inferred that the author was mechanically sorting out all the rubrics having words before., during and after. All the rubrics having the word before are brought under the section ” ailments and complaints before “

For e.g.; Vision, color, before the eyes
Vision, net, before the eyes
Ear board before sensation
Here the author has failed to differentiate a particular complaint happening befor a certain event from mere sensation. This is a great blunder that the author has made.
Many rubrics representing ailments during a particular event are omitted as not having the word – “during”
Eg: Back pain morning on rising
Mind anxiety evening amelioration
Mind anxiety children in when lifted from the cradle.
But similar rubrics having the words – before, during & after are included.
Eg. Mind aixiety night, midnight after
Mind anxiety night 3 AM after
In the preface author was blindly criticizing additions made in the modern repertories without quoting examples.

Conclusion:
Despite all these demerits the book is useful as a ready reference especially in acute cases