The Prescriber: A Dictionary of the New Therapeutics

THIS work is designed primarily for the beginner in homceopathic practice, as a handy book of reference, to enable him to find speedily the most suitable remedy for a given case, with hints as to the best attenuation to employ, and how frequently to repeat.The second edition of THE PRESCRIBER, comprising double the number of copies issued in the first, has naturally taken a longer time to exhaust. This has afforded the author an opportunity of making many annotations in his interleaved copies; and the most important of these have been embodied in the present edition. Several entirely new headings have been added, and in deference to suggestions an attempt has been made to classify the large chapters, "Cough" and "Headache." The difficulty in satisfactorily classifying these, or any other disorders which ha,e many varieties, lies in the fact that the divisions are necessarily more or less artificial and partial. For instance, "spasmodic" may be taken to describe one kind of cough; ,"dry" may describe another class; "hacking" another, and so on; but many medicines will cause coughs having all these characteristics, and, consequently, it will be of little use to classify the same medicine under each of the heads, whilst it would be misleading to place it only under one. To meet this difficulty the leading features in the symptoms of the drugs mentioned in these two chapters have been italicized, so that they will more readily catch the eye; and under subsidiary headings peculiar conditions of the diseases have been added, with their corresponding drugs, so that they may be moreeasily found. In order to enable those who use the book to avoid the practice of alternating medicines, greater precision in differentiating their indications has been aimed at. Where formerly two remedies were advised to be given in alternation, the particular indications when to give the one and when the other are now supplied. The indications for the remedies generally will be found to be more symptomatic and less pathological than formerly. Medicines have no regard to the names of diseases, either pathological or nosological, but only to the symptoms of each individual patient. A reportorial work, whose basis of arrangement is clinical or nosological, has, in strict logic, no raison d'etre in Homeopathy; but practically it has a by no means unimportant place. Names of diseases correspond to well-defined groups of symptoms, which find analogous groups in the symptom-record of the various medicines. A clinical repertory like THE PRESCRIBER shows at a glance what these medicines are, and how they are to be distinguished from each other.If the most similar remedy is not found under any of the medicines named, recourse must be had to the Materia Medica itself and the Repertories of its Symptomatology. THE PRESCRIBER IS not intended to be a substitute for a knowledge of the Materia Medica, but only as a help to the successful use of it. For the benefit of non-professional readers who may :find the book of service when professional advice is not available, the Glossary compiled by the late Mr. HENRI HUSSON for the second edition has been retained.