All in one Homoeopathic MATERIA MEDICA for BHMS Students – Prof. (Dr.) Niranjan Mohanty

This book is designed as a ‘textbook’ specially meant for under-graduate students of the BHMS degree course in homoeopathy. The book is structured as per the 4 years’ curriculum of Materia Medica. The revised and enlarged edition contains new remedy additions as per the new revised syllabus from the Central Council of Homoeopathy. Rare remedies have also been added. The Preface gives a general gist of how a remedy needs to be studied, in the best way possible. A brief understanding of every subdivision under each remedy is given. The chapter on Introduction to Homoeopathic Materia Medica discusses in brief, what is Homoeopathy, what is Materia Medica and what is Homoeopathic Materia Medica. Many of the terms we use routinely are explained and our basic laws of Homoeopathy are touched upon. How homoeopathy views health and disease and how we analyse and evaluate symptoms to make a prescription, are all quickly discussed. The author has highlighted the individual contributions of the pioneers, and proceeded to discuss in brief how our Materia Medica has been created and compiled. Different types of Materia Medica are discussed. The next chapter deals with different ways of studying Materia Medica. There is a chapter on the history of Homoeopathic Materia Medica and it makes quite interesting reading to see how the Materia Medica evolved over time. The main part of the book deals with the different remedies covered therein.

The index in front categorizes the remedies based on each year’s syllabus, however, the remedies within the book are arranged alphabetically. At the end is a section on Lesser Known Drugs. Each remedy in the main part is divided under different headings (except the Lesser Known Drugs, for which only main indications are given) :

• Introduction
• Causation
• Constitution
• Mental generals
• Physical generals
• Guiding symptoms
• Main sphere of action discussed
• Relationship discussed in detail
• Thermal
• Pharmaceutical details
• Physiologic action
• Therapeutics

Potencies It can be clearly seen that a lot of effort has gone into compiling this book. Under Relationships, different remedies are given with their comparisons and differentiations. Symptoms are also given emphasis by grading them into regular type, italics and bold type. The thermal modalities don’t just cover the general thermal state of the remedy, but also the particular modalities that may differ based on the complaint. This is certainly a very valuable aspect which might otherwise confuse a beginner and lead to a wrong prescription, if one does not understand this fine differentiation properly. The pharmaceutical details are of interest from the theory point of view and they would be useful to the students esp. in the first year of college when they study homoeopathic pharmacy. Most of the characteristic symptoms are accompanied with other remedies in brackets, those remedies that share that same symptom. This would be a very useful feature even in the clinic, as a handy reference. The book ends with a bibliography and an alphabetical remedy index. The book covers a total of 251 remedies.

The book is not just for the student, but will be useful as a ready reference in the clinic as well. One of the good compilations on Materia Medica, definitely. Dr Mohanty has created a valuable book with a lot of care and effort. Recommended!