Lectures on Materia Medica

Details

The first edition of James Tyler Kent's Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica was published in 1905.

Here are 217 remedies from the pen of one of the most influential American homeopaths. These are the transcribed lectures from Kent's classes at the Post-Graduate School of Homoeopathics in Philadelphia.

Much of the information is from Hering's Guiding Symptoms interspersed with Kent's clinical experience. Though not a primary materia medica, there are wonderful gems to be found within. Witness the distinctive picture of the sycotic miasm within the context of the remedy, Natrum sulphuricum.

The colloquial presentation leads to an easier grasp of the information. The lectures are in simple form, explaining Kent's plan of study for each remedy.

Kent felt that "the speech of laymen presents all sickness to the physician's mind, hence the Materia Medica must be reduced from technicalities to simple speech. By presenting every remedy's strong characteristics Kent shows how the Materia Medica is evolved and used. This is one of the first instances where a remedy picture is portrayed.

Going beyond the rote enumeration of endless symptom lists, Kent offers a lasting grasp of each remedy.

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Heritage

Transcribed by his students from the lectures he presented at his Post-graduate School of Homeopathics in Philadelphia.

It is reported that he stood with his interleaved and annotated copy of Hering's Guiding Symptoms on the lectern, and talked about the remedy, presenting symptoms from the book, and subjective reports from his own practice.

The transcribed lectures are sometimes seen in archives as a bound collection of typewritten pages. The National Center for Homeopathy has a unique series of his lectures that are hand-written, and while some are nearly identical to the material in the book, others are substantially different. A 2nd edition was printed in 1911, a 3rd edition in 1923, a 4th edition in 1932 and reprinted in 1956.

In 1991, Jay Yasgur and Chris Ellithorp published The Dunham Lectures - an additional series of lectures on materia medica that Kent delivered as a guest lecturer at the Dunham College in Chicago in 1899.

Julian Winston writes:
A valuable series of lectures which should be placed in historical perspective - this material is NOT primary materia medica. It is filtered through Kent and often filtered through Hering before him. The material is wonderful to read and contains many valuable therapeutic hints. Unfortunately, too many use this book as a primary source of materia medica. It isn't.

From:
The Heritage of Homoeopathic Literature
copyright 2001 by Julian Winston
Reprinted with the permission of the author

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Author

Dr. James Tyler Kent, M.D.

(1849 - 1910)

Dr. Kent was born in Woodhul, New York. He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and started practice in St. Louis as an Eclectic. He became interested in homoeopathy in 1878, when his wife's illness failed to respond either to eclectic or allopathic treatment and was cured by a homoeopath.

Kent began practice with low potencies, but he was not satisfied. Later he resolved to test the 30th potency to see if there was any medicine present. He prepared with his own hands the 30th potency of Podophyllum according to Centesimal scale after the method of Hahnemann.

One day a child was brought in to his clinic in emergency and it appeared that the child would not live long. While it lay in the arms of its mother, a thin yellow fecal stool ran all over his carpet. The odor was like that of the Podophyllum stool. It was horribly offensive, and the stool was so copious that the mother made the remark that she did not know where it all came from.

Dr. Kent thought to test Podophyllum 30 prepared by him for that case. Next morning he was surprised to learn from the grandmother of the child that he was doing well. One dose of Podophyllum cured a dangerously ill patient. He then realized the power of the potentized remedies, and he thought of using increasingly potentized remedies in his practice.

He became famous as a high potency homoeopath, as most of the homoeopaths before him were using low potency remedies. He advocated the use of the 30th, 200th, 1M, 50M, CM, DM and MM potencies made on the Centesimal scale. Dr. Kent introduced the doctrine of 'Series in Degrees' in the treatment of chronic diseases.

He found that one potency was not sufficient for chronic cases, though it would generally do for acute illnesses. Many chronic illnesses were cured by keeping the patient under the influence of the one indicated remedy for two or more years. But this cannot be done with continuous curative action, unless the doctrine of 'Series in Degrees' is fully understood and used.

Dr. Kent discovered that "just as there are octaves of musical tones, so there are octaves in the simple substance, through which severally it is possible to correspond with the various planes of the interior organism of the animal cells."

These planes correspond to the similar remedy in 30th, 200th, 1M 10M 50M, CM, DM, and MM potencies. He found that when the action of the 30th is completed the patient needs the 200th potency, but when the action of 200th potency is exhausted, the patient requires the 1M potency; and so on till the same remedy in higher and highest potencies cures permanently.

Dr. Kent also discovered the 'Law of Vital Action and Reaction' as pointed out by Dr. Hahnemann. "A medicine is not too high to cure so long as it is capable of aggravating the symptoms belonging to the sickness; in the first hours in acute, and in the first few days of a chronic sickness."

He also thought that a homoeopathic aggravation was essential from the application of the Simillimum in chronic cases. Dr. Kent felt that if there was relief without homoeopathic aggravation, the chronic sickness was only superficially affected and would require a deeper acting remedy to remove the vital disorder.

Dr. Kent laid greatest importance to the will, understanding and memory of the patient. They form the innermost of the man, and are extended outward through the general physical organism.

Cure takes place from center to periphery, but if the symptoms retreat from periphery to center the prescription is wrong and must be antidoted. Hence in order to treat successfully, the homoeopath should know the correspondence of organs and direction of cure.

Dr. Kent proved many new medicines, which he described in his book: 'New Remedies, Clinical Cases, Lesser Writings, Aphorisms and Precepts'.

Dr. Kent was famous for teaching Materia Medica. He taught Materia Medica at the Homoeopathic Medical College of St. Louis, from 1881-88, at the School of Homoeopathy, Philadelphia from 1890-99, at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, Chicago from 1903-9, and Hering Medical College Hospital. Students from England, European countries, India and other parts of the world sought admission to the institution where he taught the subject.

Sir John Weir, A.H. Grimmer, Pierre Schmidt, B.K. Bose, and other famous homoeopaths from all over the world were his disciples. He was the President and Trustee of Chicago Homoeopathic Hospital. His lectures on 'Homoeopathic Materia Medica', 'Homoeopathic Philosophy', and the 'Repertory of the Materia Media', are fundamental texts still utilized today.

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Reviews

From
Pacific Coast Journal of Homeopathy
August, 1905 page 191
Review of Kent's Lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica

Reprinted by: RESONANCE, May-June 1996

The appearance of Dr. Kent's work has been eagerly anticipated by a goodly portion of the profession and seems to have given satisfaction to a goodly number of those who have seen and read it. This proves that there is a certain measure of merit in the author and in the book. "Where does the merit lie?" so far as the book is concerned, for that alone may be legitimately discussed here.

It is not in the completeness of the work from the materia medica standpoint, for very many, in fact nearly all, the essentials which belong to a materia medica and especially to a homeopathic materia medica, are blandly ignored; in fact, this is the case to an extent which makes the title of the book a misnomer.

It is not in the clearness and comprehensiveness with which individual remedies are treated, for not one remedy in the entire volume, and each occupies all the space necessary, but that, when read, would require the careful study of some other and widely different author to give to the reader a fairly correct idea of its real merits.

It is not in an especially clear grasp of the individuality of each drug, for the author, in spite of his frequent allusion to and insistence upon a careful study of this very individuality, seems quite satisfied with an elaboration of mere key-notes, and seeks to find impressiveness in frequent reiteration of well-known but not always well proved keynotes, evidently believing that is the genius of the homeopathic materia medica.

It is not in correct style, for the style, from a literary standpoint, is frequently so unconventional as to almost cause regret.

Neither is it that every page leaves upon the reader the impression that the book represents careful thought made possible by special training and rendered valuable by extensive clinical experience; on the contrary, the reasoning offered is frequently unsatisfactory, amounting to mere assertions, and the reader who has been an honest and careful student of the homeopathic materia medica and a busy prescriber, who has studied homeopathic materia medica both from a theoretical and practical standpoint, cannot easily rid himself of the unpleasant impression that many things told by Kent are fanciful rather than real.

And yet the book has undoubted interest. And in what does that interest lie?

In the ingenious, even though at times fanciful, elaboration of keynotes, applying them in all sorts of ways and strongly impressing them upon the reader, thus helping him to get some sort of an idea concerning at least a few phases of drug-action which may be important, at times actually helpful, and surely much better than nothing - always provided that the reader has enough knowledge of the REAL homeopathic material medica not to fool himself into the belief, while studying Kent or any other author on "characteristics," that he is studying materia medica.

That some of our colleagues actually are of that opinion is proved by the expressions of gratitude with which they have received that volume, not for what it is, but what the title page claims for it and what they accept it for.

But this book is not a materia medica; it is only an enlarged and chatty book on "characteristics," and as such it has its worth. As to homeopathic materia medica, America has produced only two great writers: Dunham and T. F. Allen with Constantine Hering and Charles Julius Hempel, each in a field distinctly his own, standing in the next rank. Kent does not belong to the great ones.

(ed. note: As the sayings go, "What a difference a day makes...," or, "Only time will tell...."- MKG)

RESONANCE MAY-JUNE 1996

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Contents

abrot -- 17
acet-ac -- 18
acon -- 19-30
cimic -- 31-34
aesc -- 35-39
aeth -- 40-41
agar -- 42-47
agn -- 48
ail -- 49-52
alet -- 53
all-c -- 54-56
aloe -- 57-60
alumen -- 61-65
alum -- 66-77
alum-p -- 78-83
alum-sil -- 84-90
ambr -- 91-95
am-c -- 96-100
am-m -- 101-102
anac -- 103-104
ant-c -- 105-108
ant-t -- 109-114
apis -- 115-122
apoc -- 123-127
arg -- 128-135
arg-n -- 136-141
arn -- 142-147
ars -- 148-165
ars-i -- 166-170
ars-s-f -- 171-177
arum-t -- 178-182
asaf -- 183-186
aur-ar -- 187-190
aur-i -- 191-193
aur -- 194-200
aur-m -- 201-203
aur-s -- 204-208
bapt -- 209-213
barium iodatum -- 214-215
barium sulphuricum -- 216-220
bar-c -- 221-228
bar-m -- 229-232
bell -- 233-255
benz-ac -- 256-259
berb -- 260-264
bor -- 265-269
brom -- 270-275
bry -- 276-291
bufo -- 292-296
cact -- 297-303
cadm-s -- 304-305
calad -- 306-308
calc-ar -- 309-310
calc -- 311-328
calc-f -- 329-330
calc-i -- 331-333
calc-p -- 334-337
calc-sil -- 338-346
calc-s -- 347-353
calen -- 354
camph -- 355-357
cann-i -- 358-359
cann-s -- 360
canth -- 361-363
caps -- 364-367
carb-an -- 368-369
carb-v -- 370-386
carbn-s -- 387-395
card-m -- 396
caul -- 397
caust -- 398-403
cench -- 404-413
cham -- 414-423
chelin -- 424-427
chin-ar -- 428-431
cic -- 432-434
cina -- 435-437
cinchona -- 438-442
cist -- 443-444
clem -- 445-447
cocc -- 448-451
coc-c -- 452-454
coff -- 455-458
colch -- 459-463
coloc -- 464-466
con -- 467-472
crot-h -- 473-477
crot-t -- 478-482
culx -- 483-486
cupr -- 487-494495
cycl -- 495-497
dig -- 498-500
dros -- 501-502
dulc -- 503-510
eup-per -- 511-515
ferr-ar -- 518-521
ferr-i -- 522-525
ferr -- 526-530
ferr-p -- 531-536
fl-ac -- 537-542
gels -- 543-547
glon -- 548-552
graph -- 553-559
grat -- 560-561
guai -- 562-563
ham -- 564
hell -- 565-569
hep -- 570-577
hydr -- 578-579
hyos -- 580-587
hyper -- 588-591
ign -- 592-597
iodine -- 598-603
ip -- 604-608
kali-ar -- 609-616
kali-bi -- 617-623
kali-c -- 624-636
kali-i -- 637-640
kali-m -- 641-644
kali-p -- 645-653
kali-sil -- 654-659
kali-sula -- 660-666
kalm -- 667-670
kreos -- 671-673
lac-c -- 674-677
lac-v -- 678-681
lach -- 682-693
laur -- 694
led -- 695-698
lil-t -- 699-702
lyc -- 703-712
mag-c -- 713-716
mag-m -- 717-719
mag-p -- 720-721
mang -- 722-726
med -- 727-730
merc -- 731-742
merc-c -- 742-743
merc-i-f -- 743
merc-i-r -- 744
merc-s -- 744
cinnb -- 744
mez -- 745-747
mill -- 748-749
mosch -- 750-751
mur-ac -- 752-753
naja -- 754-756
nat-a -- 757-761
nat-c -- 762-765
nat-m -- 766-772
nat-p -- 773-778
nat-sil -- 779-782
nat-s -- 783-787
nat-s & sycosis -- 788-795
nit-acv796-800
nux-m -- 801-802
nux-v -- 803-808
op -- 809-812
ox-ac -- 813-815
petr -- 816-819
ph-ac -- 820-823
phos -- 824-835
phyt -- 836-838
pic-ac -- 839-840
plat -- 841-843
plb -- 844-847
podo -- 848-850
psor -- 851-856
puls -- 857-870
pyrogen -- 871-873
ran-b -- 874-875
rhod -- 876-877
rhus-t -- 878-884
rumx -- 885-888
ruta -- 889-891
sabad -- 892-895
sabin -- 896-898
sang -- 899-903
sars -- 904-906
sec -- 907-909
sel -- 910-911
senec -- 912
seneg -- 913-915
sepia -- 916-924
silica -- 925-934
spig -- 935-937
spong -- 938-940
squil -- 941
stannum metallicum -- 942-944
staph -- 945-947
stram -- 948-950
sulph -- 951-975
sul-ac -- 976-979
sul-i -- 980-984
syph -- 985-989
tarent -- 990-993
ther994-995
thu -- 996-1000
tub -- 1001-1007
valer -- 1008-1009
verat -- 1010-1011
vespa vulgaris -- 1012
wye -- 1013
zinc -- 013-1015
zinc-p -- 1016-1023
index -- 1025-1030

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