Introduction to Repertory — definition, origin, need and the word Repertorium

First-year Repertory and Case Taking opens with a chapter that answers a simple question: what is this subject? The NCH syllabus, under the code HomUG-R-I, calls the chapter “Introduction to Repertory, Definition and Meaning of Repertory”.

It lists five topics. They are all short to name. But together they give you the base for the whole subject. Let us go through them.

## First, a plain picture

Before the topics, here is a picture to hold in your head.

Think of the index at the back of a big textbook. You look up a word, and it tells you which pages to turn to. A repertory works in a similar way. It is an index of symptoms. You look up a symptom, and it points you to medicines where that symptom has been recorded.

That picture is not the textbook definition. It is a starting point. The syllabus asks you to learn the proper definition, and your teachers will give it to you. But if you remember “an index”, you are on the right road.

## The five topics

### 1. General Introduction to Repertory

This is the overview. What the subject is, what it covers, and how it is laid out. Think of it as the first lecture, where you get the lay of the land.

### 2. Origin of Repertory

Where did repertories come from? Why did anyone make the first one? This is a history topic. It helps to know that a repertory was made to solve a real problem. That leads straight into the next topic.

### 3. Need of Repertory

Why do we need a repertory at all? Here is one way to see it. The first-year Materia Medica list alone has fifty medicines. Across the course, you will meet many more. Each one has a long record of symptoms. No one can hold all of that in memory. A repertory helps a physician find their way through it.

The syllabus lists “need” as its own topic. The next chapter on the sheet goes further, into uses, scope and limits.

### 4. Definition of Repertory

This is the formal definition. Learn it word for word from your textbook. Exams often ask for it directly. Then, next to it in your notes, write the definition in your own simple words. If the two match in meaning, you have understood it.

### 5. Meaning of REPERTORIUM

The syllabus writes this word in capital letters. Repertorium is the old word that “repertory” comes from. The syllabus asks you to learn its meaning.

Here is a memory hook, though not a definition. English speakers can hear the word “repertoire” in it. A singer’s repertoire is the set of songs they keep ready. Hold on to that idea of a store kept ready for use. Then learn the exact meaning your textbook gives.

## How this chapter sits in the year

The syllabus sheet lists five chapters for first-year Repertory:

1. this Introduction,
2. Need and uses of repertory and repertorization,
3. Terminologies relevant to Repertory,
4. Kent’s Repertory, laid out chapter by chapter, and
5. how Anatomy, Physiology and Psychology connect with Repertory.

So this chapter is where the subject starts. Chapter three will give you the working words, like “rubric” and “gradation”. A rubric is a heading in the repertory that names a symptom. Chapters four and five both work with Kent’s Repertory, so that book will become familiar fast.

Repertory also links with other first-year subjects. The Psychology syllabus asks how thought, feeling and behaviour are shown in the repertory. And the Organon syllabus includes Kent among the figures whose history you study. Different subjects, same names. That is a good sign you are learning one system, not eight separate ones.

## What to take from it

Three things.

First, the picture: a repertory is an index that leads from symptoms to medicines. Keep it simple until the formal definition sinks in.

Second, the formal definition, learned exactly, with your own version beside it.

Third, the word Repertorium. It is a small topic, but it is on the sheet, and it is an easy mark in an exam if you know it.

A note on limits. Learning a repertory is learning a tool that physicians use in their work. It is not a way to look up a medicine for yourself or your family. That remains the work of a qualified, registered practitioner.

## Where to go next on the platform

This piece lives in the first-year Repertory and Case Taking room. “Repertory and Case Taking in the First Year” in the same room maps all five chapters. The next piece in this series covers the second chapter, on the need and uses of repertory. For a non-exam view of the subject, the Repertory topic in Homoeopathy Knowledge is open to any reader.