Complete Repertory by Roger Van Zanvoort-Book Review

Review by Dr Jasmin BHMS MD(Hom)

• Author: Roger Van Zanvoort
• Year of publishing: 1996
• Number of remedies: 1725
• Volume: Three also in one big volume having almost 2830 pages
• PREFACE  by Dr. Dario Spinedi

Most complete work on Kent’s Repertory. Initially it came out as database file for use with kent Homoeopathic association, MAC Repertory and for HOMPATH Soft ware. Now other softwares (ISIS) also giving options of complete repertory. 

About the author
Roger van Zandvoort (1958 –    )
Roger van Zandvoort was born in Heerlen, Holland, in 1958. His website is: www.morphologica.com

At age 20 he went to the Nederlandse Akademie . Due to his deep knowledge of phytotherapy, acquired before and during this study, he was immediately invited to start lecturing at the Akademie when he finished his study.

In 1982 he started work on additions and corrections to Kent’s Repertory, without initial intention of publication. That work was for the benefit of his patients but gradually he started to dedicate less time to them and more time to his work on the repertory.

From these efforts sprang a database called the “Complete Repertory” that started to be used commercially in homeopathic software programs such as MacRepertory and later CARA and Hompath.

In 1990, guided by Dr. Künzli and later by Hansjoerg Hee and Dario Spinedi, 40 medical doctors from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland began to integrate Boger’s Boenninghausen Repertory into the Complete Repertory. During the ensuing 6 years Roger received and integrated their work into his Repertory.

By  updating and improving the Complete Repertory, Roger still works full-time on this project.

Evolution
Complete repertory is one of the widely used repertories since the last decade. This project work is done by the Institute of Research in Homoeopathic Information and Symptamatology.

In practice, they first treated most people with herbal medicines, but when they felt that they really knew the correct homoeopathic remedy, only when it was clear, they gave homoeopathic remedy. But after a while the entire practice was homoeopathy. And then he bought a computer in 1987, and a Mac repertory to help in practice.

Roger started comparing the information that Bill Gray had with the Vithoulkas additions to the Synthetic Repertory, and saw that there were many differences. He liked the Synthetic repertory, so he started collecting material to add to Mac Repertory and saw that the authors were not always the same, although they had the same additions. So he got involved in finding out where these additions really came from. There’s a lot of information missing in Kent’s Repertory, and that is one of the reasons that he began this work.

Gradation of remedies

4 Grades

• 1^st Grade : BOLD UPPERCASE
• 2^nd Grade:UPPER CASE
• 3^rd Grade: Bold Italis
• 4^th Grade: Roman

Sources
Mainly based on 1^st , 2^nd  and 6^th edition of Kent’s Repertoy. To this added and corrected mainly from the following books,

• Homoeopathic journals
• Schmidt’s and Chand’s final general Repertory
• Kunzli’s Repertorium generale
• Sivaraman’s additions to Kent’s Repertory
• CCRH’s (Dr.Rastogi’s) corrections to Boger Boenninghausen’s Repertory.
• Boerike’s Matetia medica and repertory
• Phatak’s additions,
• Boenninghausen’s Repertory and Boenninghausen’s unique private additions.

Author ID is mentioned in numbers as superscript after the remedy. The rubric source is mentioned in parenthesis with page numbers of that individual reference. Total 302 authors index is given as source.

Philosophical background
General to particular.

Plan and construction of the repertory
The Repertory is available in the print form and electronic form. In the print form it is available as a single all in one volume or in three volumes. In the electronic form it is available with Mac Repertory / Hompath Classic / isis  etc.

1. The complete Repertory          : Mind (Vol. I)
2. The complete Repertory          : Vertigo to Speech and voice (Vol. II)
3. The complete Repertory          : Respiration to Generalities (Vol. III) 

The chapters as follows

1. Mind
2. Vertigo
3. Head
4. headpain
5. Eye
6. Vision
7. Ear
8. hearing
9. Nose
10. Smell
11. Face
12. Mouth
13. Taste
14. Teeth
15. Throat
16. External throat
17. Stomach
18. Abdomen
19. Rectum
20. Stool
21. Bladder
22. Kidney
23. Prostate gland
24. Urethra
25. Urine
26. Male genitalia
27. Female genitalia
28. Larynx and trachea
29. Speech and voice
30. Respiration
31. Cough
32. Expectoration
33. Chest
34. Back
35. Extremities
36. Extremity pain
37. Sleep
38. Chill
39. Fever
40. Perspiration
41. Skin
42. Generalities

Arrangements of rubrics through chapters

Rubric arrangement is as follows

• General rubrics
• Sides(one sided, left, right)
• Time
• Modalities and concomitants
• Extending to
• Localisations
• Sensations

Remedy abbreviations

1. Different abbreviations of the one and same remedy were put together. For eg. Kaol and Alum-sil became Alum sil . (A full index to abbreviation changes can be found on the Indexes page in the Reference section.)
2. Remedies have been re-alphabetised according to the abbreviations
3. Some remedy abbreviations have been changed to ensure less confusions, mainly for the mineral salts, metals, acidums and aceticums. For example

• Aceticums, aceticas will end in           Am-acet. Instead of Am-a.
• Alkaloids end in “in” conin-br instead of coni-br .

Dub. was changed to Dubin

• Arsenicosums,arsenicums.etc. end in – ar             Nat-ar instead of Nat-a
• Carbonicums end in c, with an exception of calc-carb
• Cyanatums end in cy Arg-cy instead of Arg-c
• Ferro-cyanatums end in fcy Kali-fcy instead of kali- fer
• Magnets begin with M to avoid confusion with magnesiums, which remain as mag.
• Lacticums end in L Ferr-l instead of Ferr-lac
• Metallicums have no suffix Arg  instead of Arg-m
• Muriaticums end in m Arg-m instead of Arg mur.
• Nitrates, nitrites, etc. End in –n Stron-n instead of Stron-nit.
• Oxydatums end in –o Ant-o
• Oxalicums end in –ox.    Ant-ox
• Sulphuricums, sulphates, sulfites, etc, end in -s. Previously sometimes -sul or -s. Example: Merc-sul was changed to Merc-s.

Structural changes to kent’s repertory/merits

1. The most important word in a rubric was moved to the beginning of that rubric. Eg. During urination- Urination during

2. All the agg rubrics with amel sub rubrics wee reorganised Eg.stooping agg.   amel  ,became  Stooping agg,  amel

3. Older terminology was replased when clearly needed by more modern terminology following the American spelling:  Eg. Miscarriage is included in Abotion , Siesta is included in afternoon sleep

4. Replaced the inconsistent use of several words with the same meaning by a single word throughout. Ex. Micturation became urination, qualmishness became nausea

5. Some remedy abbreviations have been changed to ensure less confusion about what each abbreviation denotes. The confusion was particularly marked for the mineral,salts,metals,acidums and aceticums Ex. Am-a – Am-acet.at-a- Nat-ars

6. The degrees of the remedies in Kent’s original repertory have been checked.
7. Reorganizing rubrics in the” Mind “chapter- there have been some important changes and additions to the rubrics of the mind chapter
8. Dreams rubric is mentioned in the mind chapter instead of sleep chapter in Kent’s repertory. . The Dreams represent emotional impressions and mental strain.
9. Bodily anxieties and apprehensions have been included in the “mind” chapter under anxiety.  The reason for this is that, although felt in a specific part of the body, it is still an expression of emotional value and therefore should be included in the MIND chapter. Of course we also preserved those rubrics in the specific body part chapter. Example: STOMACH; Anxiety in has been included in Mind; Anxiety; Stomach, in.
10. The separate main mind rubrics talk, talking and talks have been combined intone rubric named talk,talking,talks when their aetiology was a more emotional-mental one.
11. The sub-rubrics mentioning animals and body or body parts under the main rubrics Delusions, Dreams and Fear have been put together under the header: body, body parts or animals. Example: Fear; dogs, of (Kent p 44) became Fear; animals; dogs, of.
12. A new chapter has been created namely SPEECH AND VOICE containing those speech rubrics from the mind and mouth chapter that are related to motoric problems and the voice rubrics formery found in the larynx and trachea chapter.

Example: MIND; Speech; embarrassed (Kent p 81) was changed to        MIND; Talk, talking, talks; embarrassed.

Example: MIND; Speech; incoherent (Kent p 81) became  Speech & Voice; Speech; incoherent.

9. For pain of extremities and head, separate chapters have created like EXTREMITY PAIN and  HEAD PAIN in order to minimise confusion resulting from size of them and the hierarchy.
10. Rubrics related to face chapter are purely mentioned in this chapter with cross references at the old location . for ex. All locations of eyebrows , eruptions outside nose,forehead etc.
11. Desires and aversions are moved to GENERALITIES chapter under the rubric food and drinks
12. In stomach chapter indigestion rubric contain the modalities of indigestion where as disordered rubric consist of all specific food that cause indigestion.
13. In respiration chapter rubrics given under difficult and impeded are merged and put under rubric difficult
14. In generalities chapter all abusive and poisonous substances are put under the rubric abuse of poisoning with
15. Wherever the rubric reorganizations have made there the old rubric will be present as it is without remedies for the easy search with a cross reference to the new rubric place.
16. All noises in all different chapters have been put together like in the ear, under the main rubric “noises”
17. In the ‘ abdomen’ chapter all epigastrium locations have been moved to the stomach chapter and have been put in the general stomach rubrics there.
18. Lot of cross reference was created with comparison with Kent’s repertory. For cross references if no remedies are mentioned in the rubric means after an arrow mark the cross reference word will be given. If remedies are mentioned a point sign is used before the cross reference. If the cross reference is in different chapter than the first word will be in UPPERCASE. For ex. In mind chapter MIND, FEAR, croud, in a          GENERALITIES, Crouded

19. If “-“ is used instead of ”;” then it indicates that it has several sub rubrics that the reference is referring to. For ex. Fear ; bad news, hearing – horrible things – sad stories means fear ; bad news, hearing/ fear ; horrible things/ fear ; sad  stories.

20. The gradation of remedies of different repertories have been equated to form the complete repertory is mentioned separately.
21. Complete repertories main rubric will have all he remedies mentioned in its sub rubrics.
22. REPERTORY PAGE REFERENCES: Other reference sources are mentioned with page number in brackets immediately after the rubric. For ex. ALCOHOLISM , dipsomania ( K36,S1 398, G28) means K for Kent repertory page no.36, G-Repertorium generale, S1 or synthetic repertory volume1.

23. Fver chapter has been renamed to fever, Heat. The chill chapter to chill, Chilliness.
24. Many minor remedy abbreviations have been changed in order not to confuse them with other remedy abbreviations that represent completely different remedies. Example: Cocc-s. (Coccinella septempunctata, an insect) has been changed to Cocci-s in order not to be confused with Cocc (Cocculus indicus, a plant). One might think Cocc-s is a further species in the Cocc family, which it is not. Example: Crot-t (Croton tiglium, a plant) has been changed to Croto-t in order not to be confused with Crot-h and Crot-c, the Crotalus snakes.
25. New rubrics : were created when there were no existing rubrics that covered their meaning in Kent’s Repertory. We studied the meaning of the rubric using the information in the materia medica and the information in contemporary dictionaries of the time. Also, the rubric to be added should have real homeopathic value, ie. the new information should be information that helps the consulting homeopath find the right remedy.
26. Many much smaller reorganisation work has been done, but it would be too extensive to mention all of it here.

 Author identification numbers
The author identification numbers (ID’s) are based on chronology, based on the dates that the listed authors first published their work. This is a change from the system used in the pre – 3.1 computer versions of the Complete Repertory, the Synthetic Repertory and the Repertorium Generale. The new system enables to have an idea about the time the addition has been made and by whom. Author numbers are displayed as subscript numbers behind the remedy abbreviation.

The last three numbers of an author number are used to specify the authors place in the chronological system we used that starts with the 1 for Hahnemann S. as being the oldest homoeopath to, at this point in the development of the Complete Repertory, 239 Riefer M. as the last person added to the list and therefore the most recent author that we took additions or new remedy names from. Since this work started with a rather complete list of authors, while giving everyone a suitable ID number, most ID numbers fall into the 3 digit category. Nevertheless and of course, some authors have been added later in the process. These authors got 4 digit numbers where the first digit only indicates the first, second, third or even fourth time of renumbering.

Therefore

1. Hahnemann S.
2. Stapf E.

• 1002 Hartmann F. (from the same time as Stapf, but added in the first re-numbering session).
• 2002 Jorg J.C.G. (from the same time as Stapf, but added in the second re-numbering session)
• 100 Blackwood A.L
• 1100 Shedd P.W (from the same time as Blackwood, but added in the first re-numbering session).

Additions
Additions were made from various sources, using information about the reliability of authors, and using the book reviews for those sources from old homoeopathic journals as a guideline for quality.

As a general rule, additions were made from the oldest author available for that addition. The grade of the additions and the existing information were also taken into account, in order not to destroy the valid information in Kent’s Repertory.

The original source is credited with their additions. In most cases there is extensive materia medica available to confirm and check information.

• Special features
  Certainty about finding the correct rubrics and remedies
• A complete overview of related rubrics using cross – references
• A choice of information from old and new sources, using the latest provings.
• The best possibilities for curing your patients
• And it is the most comprehensive repertory in existence because it has: approximately 515,000 checked additions.

The complete repertory millennium and complete repertory 2003
 The complete repertory 2003 is almost 3 years newer than the Millennium complete of 2000. There are more cross references and additions,new provin and further correction.

Repertory grows or improves when you put in more additions. Sometimes there is a need to re organize and possibly even re strucrure the repertory so that long existing, but hidden rubrics can be found.

Many new cross reference have been made,in the knowledge that people will use modern day English to find information. The information from the complete2003 is presented in the Boenninghausen format-here many one gets symptoms

From generalised characteristic modalities, time, sides etc. Structure of Kent’s repertory is applied to rubrics and sub rubrics.

Complete repertory 2008
The new Complete Repertory 2008 is an important advance in homeopathic repertory.

Comprehensive and Accurate
The size of this new repertory is simply amazing: 1,748,337 remedy entries in over 167,000 rubrics. That’s more than three times as many as the original Kent and far more than any other repertory ever created!

Building on its deserved reputation as the most clinically verified repertory Complete 2008 demonstrates its increasing superiority by providing many comprehensive references to authors (and their publications) that have provided additions to the repertory.

Complete 2008 offers you the largest repertory. You can have confidence that its sources are accurate, reliable and trustworthy.

Complete 2008 has over 3 million references to authors and publications! Each remedy may have multiple sources as verifications for their addition to the repertory

Combining cross references
Do you ever find it hard to distinguish which rubric to use?  Or to find rubrics that don’t have enough remedies in them to make them viable to use? The Complete Repertory 2008 (in conjunction with ISIS Vision) helps us with this to some extent by allowing us to view cross-references.

 Complete repertory 2011
The Complete Repertory is a standard reference source, being one of the two principle modern repertories in daily use by homeopaths all over the world, and has been translated into, or is being translated into many languages (German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish,Italian, Romanian, Russian, Hindi). Based on Kent’s Repertory, it has been extensively revised, corrected and updated through several editions and incorporating material from materia medica, clinical cases and other repertories.

In its latest 2011 edition it contains nearly 2.3 million remedy additions in over 206,000 rubrics. The 2011 Complete Repertory features the changes to the remedy grading system that were introduced in the Repertorium Universale, ie. uses the Bönninghausen grading system for more detailed results in analysis, and benefits from the extensive revision and increase in number of cross-references between rubrics undertaken for the introduction of this repertory.

The repertorium univesale
Further work on complete repertory by roger van zanvoort found in RADAR and contains all the information of the complete2003. In universal Dr. Roger zanvoort added new sections like, heart and circulation,blood and clinical and also section on theme wise rubrics associated with conditions.

References:

1. A reference to repertories for homoeopathic students By  SIJU P.V
2. REPERIRE By Prof.  Vidyadhar R. Khanaj M.D(Hom)
3. Essentials of repertorisation By Prof. Dr. Shashi Kant Tiwari
4. morphologica.com
5. similima.com
6. completedynamics.com