Is Repertory Indispensable?
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Nov / Dec VOL 5 NO 6.
Dr Sk Mamgain
'Hep

Every Homoeopathic physician needs a Repertory to get ready help for successful prescribing. But, for ready and skillful repertorization, a thorough knowledge and understanding are needed of:
1. Theory - The fundamental laws of Organon.
2. The Tools- Homoeopathic Materia Medica.

The knowledge of Materia Medica enables the Homoeopathic physician to know the medicine that cure and also the disease to be cured.
But the Homoeopathic Materia Medica is so vast a sea that no one can easily remember every individual remedy nor readily recall it. Therefore, the Repertory becomes the most useful tool in identifying the indicated medicine whether acute or chronic. As such the value of the Repertory becomes immense for the physician. 

The Repertory can be used in various ways. One method is to compile all the remedies for all the symptoms/complaint of the patient elicited during case taking, along with their weightage. And the remedy covering the majority of the symptoms and with highest weightage is selected. This method is very laborious and time consuming, though quite rewarding. This kind of Repertorisation is not practical when the physician has to tackle numerous cases daily. Computerization has diluted this problem to a great extent, but it has its own pitfalls. In various cases the weightage of a number of remedies [say 3-4 or more remedies] comes to be the same. Then again, the physician has to resort to his Materia Medica and experience for final selection. 

Actually the Homoeopathic Materia Medica remains the main tool of the physician. The following anecdote will be sufficient to illustrate the importance of acquaintance with Materia Medica. It is said that some one asked Dr J H Clarke, replied that, "I study one remedy a day and two on Sundays."
Thus, when one is thoroughly acquainted with his Materia Medica, the Repertory works as a Ready Reckoner for him and helps to recognize at once the indicated remedy with little effort. The Materia Medica is then referred to confirm the final selection. This method requires less time. 

I use the Repertory extensively, specially Kent, Synthetic, C B Knerr, Phatak and Boger. I use this method with good results. Only I have to spare time to study the detailed Materia Medica regularly.
Sometimes we face cases which have no symptoms to guide us, except some physiological or pathological change. Even here, the Repertory helps us. 
To make the point clear, I am quoting one such case from my records. 

Case : Mr M, aged 45 yrs, came on 8/12/80 with a soft fatty tumour on the point of right elbow, noticed about 15-20 days back. The tumour was almost painless. Only slight pain was felt when he rested his elbow on the table.

On looking into Kent's Repertory on Pg 1214:
Tumour-elbow point of, steatoma-Hep was found (this symptom is contained in Hering's Guiding Symptoms). Hepar-sulph 200 at long intervals was prescribed from 8/12/80 to 31/12/80.
When the patient met me after two months, there was no sign of the tumour. It has not recurred till today (Dec 18th 1997).
Thus the Repertory helps in many ways and is indispensable for a Homoeopath.