Locations, Sensations, Modifications, Concomitants and Hahnemann's Symptomlexicon

[David Little]

Dear colleagues and students,

Did Boenninghausen invent the idea of location, sensation, modification
and concomitants? No he did not. By 1817 Hahnemann was compiling an
extensive hand written work called the Symptomlexicon based on the Materia
Medica Pura. Hering noted that Hahnemann used an “elaborate index” that
contained the symptoms pertaining to each organ, locality, sensation,
function changes, and modalities. The Symptomlexicon was enlarged with the
help of Dr. Gross who copied two volumes containing 3000 pages by hand. In
the end Hahnemann’s Symptomlexicon consisted of four volumes containing
4239 pages. Each page of the repertory contained small slits into which
little squares of paper containing the information could be inserted. This
construction made it easy for Hahnemann to replace and update the signs and
symptoms. Hahnemann wrote Boenninghausen on November, 25th, 1833:

"A dictionary of symptoms would occupy an efficient and very industrious
assistant secretary, uninterruptedly for a whole year....sixteen years ago
I compiled a dictionary of symptoms of the medicines that had been proved,
and I wrote it in a large folio volume….One written now would be twice as
large."

Samuel Hahnemann, His Life & Work; R. Haehl, Volume II, page 264.

The original Symptomlexicon had four parts i.e. locations, sensations,
modifications and extra signs such as extensions of pain and concomitants.
This clearly shows that the fourfold classification often attributed to
Boenninghausen was introduced by Hahnemann in his early years. The Baron
patterned his concepts after Samuel’s early layout of the Symptomlexicon.
The first part contains the regional studies of the Materia Medica Pura
organized by remedies. The second part lists sensations and complaints in
alphabetical order. For example, if one looks up “burning stinging” they
will find all of the symptoms related to burning stinging listed from
Aconite to Zinc. The modalities and extra signs are arranged in a similar
manner.

Under each rubric there is an alphabetical list of the remedies with
their full symptom. These symptoms were kept as close to the words of the
provers as possible. It was a *symptom dictionary* not an abridged index
which favors abbreviation and redactions. This made it a very, very large
work, and for this reason, it was never completed. With RW and EH we can
use the entire materia medica as a symptom dictionary and go directly to
the complete, original symptoms. With this method one needs not always use
the repertory as an index. Hahnemann would have loved this.

Hering and Knerr also used the locations, sensations, modifications and
concomitants but in manner almost opposite than Boenninghausen did the
Therapeutic Pocketbook. I use the idea of the locations, sensations,
modifications and concomitants with Kent's, Knerr's and Boenninghausen's
repertories as well as the Complete and Synthesis. I haven't used the
hierarchical classification of Kent since the 1970s. Kent himself said that
the "highest generals" were the strange, rare and peculiar characteristic
symptoms not the mental symptoms. This comment is often overlooked.

Boenninghausen's methods is not the four-fold classifications of the
symptoms. That is Hahnemann's idea!!! The Baron did, however, make this
point very clear Boenninghausen's method is the use of analogy,
generalization and the breaking up and redistributions of symptoms. Hering
used locations, sensations, modifications and concomitants but he did not
use analogy, generalization and redistribution. Hering and Knerr preferred
not to break up the symptoms and tried to stay as close to the words of the
prover. This also has great value.

Hahnemann never used the Therapeutic Pocketbook nor the method
associated with it. In the early years he used the Index to the Fragmenta
and Symptomlexicon. Later he used Boenninghausen's Repertory of Antipsoric
Remedies and Repertory of Non Antipsoric Remedies as well as Jahr's
Repertory. This has been confirmed in my research of the Paris Casebooks. I
have traced the repertory insertions in his casebooks to the original
repertories.

Sincerely, David Little
---------------
"It is the life-force which cures diseases because a dead man needs no more
medicines."

Samuel Hahnemann

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