“SENSATIONS AS IF -” A Repertory of Subjective Symptoms. By Herbert A. ROBERTS, M. D.

Sensations as
if

“SENSATIONS AS IF -“
A Repertory of Subjective
Symptoms.
By Herbert A. ROBERTS, M. D.
Ex-Chairman, American Foundation for Homœopathy.
Head of Department of Homœopathic Philosophy.
Postgraduate School of the American Foundation.
Ex-President, International Hahnemannian Association.
Presented by Médi-T.

FOREWORD.

THE
possibilities of usefulness for any repertory are so varied, and the need
for every form of index to our remedies for their use in individual cases
is so imperative, that it has stimulated us to the task of enlarging that
valuable little work on Sensations as if
which was compiled some years ago by Dr. A. W. Holcomb and published under
the auspices of The Medical Advance in
1894.

On the
other hand, the possibilities of material in our materia medica for any
repertorial index are so great that the margin of probable errors, and the
certainty of omissions, are sufficiently appalling to daunt one’s
intention to offer such a work to a profession where careful comparison is
so often necessary.

So it is
with the greatest humility, and the complete consciousness of far too many
errors, that these gleanings are offered to the homœopathic practitioner
in the hope that this little work may serve a useful purpose in the
healing of the sick.

Grateful
acknowledgment is given to the late Dr. W. A. Yingling for the original
impulse to compile such a work, and to the great help he proffered by
sending the numerous symptoms he had collected for this purpose. His
burden of years made the task impossible for him, but his interleaved copy
of Holcomb’s work, and his appreciation of and dependence upon the
original work, nurtured the inspiration to develop it still further.

Besides
these two sources, the basis of the material was secured from three major
works : Hering’s Guiding Symptoms,
Clarke’s Dictionary and Allen’s
Handbook. Frequent references have been made to Allen’s
Encyclopædia. Other volumes less well known, and including
Anshutz’s New, Old and Forgotten Remedies,
have served in adding further symptoms.

Dr William
Henry HOLCOMBE

Dr William
A. YINGLING

Dr
Constantine HERING

Dr John Henry
CLARKE

Dr Timothy Field
ALLEN

Dr
Edward Pollock ANSHUTZ

In
spite of scanning countless pages for over three years, many symptoms that
properly belong here are missing. Errors must have crept into others, for
careful checking of some obvious errors reveals mistakes in transcribing
at some point in the assembling. For all these mistakes we must plead the
frailty of human ability to turn out perfect work. Lack of time prevented
checking back to its source every symptom after the transcript was
completed, but wherever possible, outstanding inequalities have been
carried back to the materia medica and proper corrections made. Some of
the sources of information themselves have suffered from typographical
errors, as comparisons have demonstrated ; perhaps the most notable
of these sources of error were the repertories already extant, and in
particular Allen’s General Symptom Register.

This must
be our instruction to the one who uses this effort the reassertion of an
axiom in homœopathic teaching :

Let
the single symptom be only a partial indication to the application of
the materia medica. Beware the keynote that is not backed up by
knowledge of, or reference to, the materia medica. No single symptom, no
matter how “strange, rare and peculiar”, can stand without the
support of the well taken case, and the likeness of the whole patient to
the remedy.

It
is true, however, that we may see cases where the regular course of
repertorization fails to reveal the simillimum.
It is in such a case as this that the special repertory may provide a clue
to a remedy not included in the general repertory, or not so strikingly
brought to our mind. This is the field of Sensations
As If, as one possible indicator of the elusive simillimum.

Derby,
Conn

.
January 10, 1937

H. A. ROBERTS.

---

This
work is dedicated to the memory of Samuel Hahnemann,
The first to evaluate subjective symptoms.

Hahnemann Monument in Leipzig, of Steinhäuser, renovated,
in Richard Wagner Square.

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Copyright
© Médi-T 2006

Sensations
as if