This work is offered to the profession as a general Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. It has been built from all sources, and is a compilation of all the useful symptoms recorded in the fundamental works of our Materia Medica, as well as from the notes of our ablest practitioners. Many unverified symptoms have been omitted, but only when there was a decided doubt about their consistency. And on the other hand clinical matters have been given a place when it was observed to be consistent with the nature of the remedy.
    The plan of the Repertory is uniform throughout, and it is one which admits of the indefinite expansion of each division, so that remedies can be added from time to time as they come into use or have been confirmed and verified. It has been attempted to proceed in every case from generals to particulars, and in so carrying this out the aim has been to give first of all a general rubric containing all the remedies which have produced the symptoms, followed by the particulars, viz. the time of occurence, the circumstances, and lastly the extensions. Here it may be remarked, in regard to extensions, that the point from which a certain symptom extends is the one under which that symptom will be found, never under the point to which it extends.
    As is well known to older practioners, the method of working out a case from generals to particulars is the most satisfactory. If a case is worked out merely from particulars it is more than probable that the remedy will not be seen, and frequent failure will be the result. This is due to the fact that the particular directions in which the remedies in the general rubric tend have not yet been observed, and thus to depend upon a small group of remedies relating to some particular symptom is to shut out other remedies which may have that symptom, although not yet observed. By working in the other direction, however, i.e., from general to particular, the general rubric will include all remedies that are related to the symptoms, and, if after having done this the particulars are then gone into and the remedy which runs through the general rubrics is found to have the particular symptoms, this will aid in its choice as the one to be prescribed. One object, then, of this Repertory has been to assist in obtaining good general groups of remedies, and by general groups and rubrics it is not to be understood as the general of the remedies. When pathological names are used, only the leading remedies in the condition referred to will be found in the rubric.
    To those who have used Bœnninghausen's "Therapeutic Pocket Book" the working out of cases from generals is a familiar method. But for the benefit of the younger men the following suggestions are offered which may prove helpful: After taking the case according to the lines laid down in the "Organon" (§§ 83-140), write out all the mental symptoms and all symptoms and conditions predicated of the patient himself and search the Repertory for symptoms that correspond to these. Then search for such physical symptoms as are predicated of the blood, colour of discharge, and bodily aggravation and amelioration that include the whole being, as well as desire for open air, desire for heat, cold air, for rest, for motion which may be only a desire or may bring a general feeling of amelioration. It should be understood that a circumstance that makes the whole being feel better or worse is of much greater importance than when the same circumstance only affects the painful part, and these are often quite opposite. Then individualize still further, using the symptoms predicated of the organs, functions and sensations, always giving an important place to the time of occurence of every symptom until every detail has been examined. Then examine the symptom picture collectively and individually, and lastly study the Materia Medica of such remedy or remedies as run through the symptoms of the case until there is no doubt about which is the most similar of all remedies.