Book Review by Dr Syed Afsar Ali On Essentials of Boger’s Principles & Practice of Homoeopathy

The Prolific writer, Dr. Shashi Kant Tiwari. after being an author of “Essentials of Repertorization”, “Homoeopathy and Child Care”, “Boenninghausen – Boger Final General Repertory”, contributes to the Homoeopathic field recently through the book “Essentials of Boger’s Principles & Practice of Homoeopathy” with an attempt to gather the scattered works of Dr. C.M. Boger. He mentions in his preface how he had came up with the idea of compiling the Boger’s work and further he had hope that this book too, like that of Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy, by Dr. Kent, Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy, by Dr. H.A.Roberts, The Genius of Homoeopathy, by Stuart Close would be a guide book to understand the principles governing the practice of Homoeopathy.

          Dr. C.M.Boger during his active practice life between the years 1890 – 1935, presented many lectures, presentations, had discussions with contemporary stalwarts and practitioners, his case analysis and prescriptions depicting the mode of his practice. At Boger’s time, both the Boenninghausen and Kentian schools were popular. Boger studied both but accepted Boenninghausen’s way of working out of a case. He minimized the error of Grand Generalization and his work is seen as an attempt to bridge Boenninghausen and Kent. This book proves to be one, where we can find the valuable works of Boger at one place.

THE BOOK

The Ground plan comprises of

• Preface.
• The life history of Dr. C.M.Boger.
• Publisher’s Note.
• Contents.
• 66 ‘Gem Articles’
• Short Profile of Author.

PREFACE

          Author had detailed about why was it necessary to collect the writings, how the idea came up, what did he hoped this book would be recognized in future. He also thanked to certain persons who helped him throughout this missionary work.

THE LIFE HISTORY OF DR. C.M.BOGER

The Author has maintained his style of writing by including the life history which he doesn’t fail to do since his first book. This section further adds up the light and lets reader to know more about the Boger.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE.

          Here the efforts and support done by the publisher is detailed out.

CONTENTS

• Contents are neatly arranged.
• Serial Number is given exclusively to the articles with the page numbers adjacent to the title of the articles.
• Page numbers in the form of Romans were given to the preface, Life History and Publisher’s Note.
• The articles were arranged from the basic concepts such as “What is Homoeopathy?” and gradually towards philosophical articles and repertory, later articles on Clinical cases and ended through Materia Medica Articles.

66 ‘GEM ARTICLES’

• Dr. Shashi Kant Tiwari handpicked those articles which are found to be very meaningful and necessary to readers and Practitioners.
• The articles have been arranged in a sequential manner. It begins with articles pertaining to homoeopathy, where it stands, relation with other sciences. Few philosophical articles have been added related to cure, similia, studies in philosophy of healing, how to select similimum, vital energy and importance of symptoms i.e.language of disease. Articles related to case and case taking, he describes the views of Boger related to case taking with an illustration of few clinical cases. Later in the sequence articles he elaborated about the concept of Similimum  and how to find it, the indicated remedy with indication and how to find the indicated remedy. Next he discuss about some of the random thought about making prescription and difference between recovery and cure which divide us from the conventional method. Author described about the remedy reaction which help us to know the prognosis of the case in the chapter homoeopathic reaction. Next comes Grading of Symptoms, philosophy and Repertory, some facts and reason, random notes on clinical cases, some of the observations on correct prescribing etc. Author has tried his best to make a pattern of flow by adding further articles related to Law of choosing the dose, choosing remedy and its repetition. In further articles he described about the whole case perceiving, about suppression, relation of pathology with homoeopathy, about the Genus Epidemicus, clinical verification, the homoeopathic view point of cancer, therapeutic of panaritium, therapeutics of obstetrics, Children remedies and Climacteric remedies. The author has included articles related to Boger’s views on Tuberculosis and Cancer. At the end, articles related to Materia, its study, development, genius of Materia Medica, Strontium salts and gymnacladus is like a cherry on the top of icing.
•  There are few Miscellaneous articles as well such as “Veterinary Homoeopathy”, “President’s Address” which would add a pearl in the Homoeopathic Ocean.
• The mode in which the literature is obtained is also mentioned beneath the title such as “Read before the I.H.A” etc.,