As stated earlier the key to successful prescribing is the Law of Similars.
The symptom picture of the remedy is matched to the illness or injury and the closeness of the match determines the success of the cure.
The first task is to carefully analyse the information collected in the consultation and select symptoms that are particularly characteristic or individual to your case.
Once this is done, the homœopath uses two different kinds of reference books:
Repertories are books in which symptoms experienced by provers (testers) of homeopathically prepared substances are organised (both schematically and
alphabetically).
They have been expanding and improving steadily over the past two hundred years. So far over 1,000 different substances have been tested to see what symptoms they produce in a healthy person.
A repertory provides a detailed index of symptoms to help narrow this huge number of substances down, by guiding the homeopath to those which best cover all the selected symptoms and
traits.
These particular substances can then be studied in depth in the Materia Medica.
These are organised alphabetically, giving the names of each substance and describing
them in great detail. This is where the final choice is made. Repertories and Materia
Medica are now available on computer software which saves a lot of time when cross-referencing, but even so the search is likely to take quite a long time.
For this reason the homœopath may not prescribe anything for you immediately, particularly if it is your first visit.
If, however, your consultation was for an acute illness, the analysis will be simpler and the need for the remedy more urgent, so it will normally be prescribed there and then.
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