Lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica - James Tyler Kent

          James Tyler Kent (1849–1916) was an American physician best remembered as a forefather of modern homoeopathy. In 1897 Kent published a massive guidebook on human physical and mental disease symptoms and their associated homoeopathic preparations entitled Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, which has been translated into a number of languages. It has been the blueprint to many modern repertories used throughout the world and even remains in use by some homoeopathic practitioners today.

Life and career

Early years

James Tyler Kent was born on March 31, 1849, in Woodhull, New York, the son of Steven Kent and his wife Caroline Tyler. Kent was raised as a staunch Baptist.

Kent attended secondary school at the Franklin Academy of Prattsburgh, New York before enrolling at Madison University (today's Colgate University), from which he was graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1868. He earned a Master's degree from the same institution in 1870.

Kent attended the Institute of Eclectic Medicine at Cincinnati, Ohio, where, in addition to standard medicine, he studied naturopathy, homoeopathy, and chiropractic. Kent graduated from the Institute in 1873.

Career

In 1874, Kent married Ellen and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he took up a medical practice. His wife died shortly after marriage at the age of 19. He set up practice as an eclectic physician in St Louis, Missouri and soon became a distinguished member of the Eclectic National Medical Association. He took a post as a professor of anatomy at American College in St. Louis two years later.

In 1878, Kent's second wife, Lucy, became ill. In spite of Lucy's symptoms of "nervous weakness, insomnia, and anaemia" being treated by both orthodox and eclectic physicians, her condition continued to deteriorate and she was bedridden for months. At Dr Kent's wife's request, Dr Richard Phelan, a homoeopathic physician, was called in to see Lucy. Following his prescription, she made a dramatic recovery. As a result, Kent elected to study with Phelan and changed from eclecticism to homoeopathy.

It was at this time that he became a fervent adherent of the precepts of homoeopathy, a branch of alternative medicine that purports to treat patients through the administration of "remedies" containing massively diluted forms of substances that, if given to a healthy person would supposedly cause symptoms similar to the disease. It is falsely believed by homoeopaths that the introduction of such "similars" into the body effectively stimulates it to defeat the ailment or disease.

In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. During this period, Kent's second wife died.

In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. He remained in that position until 1899.

Clara Louis Tobey, a doctor turned homoeopath, was treated by Dr Kent and her, later on, became his wife and she helped him in completing his famous works which were published.

In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. This guidebook to ailments and their associated "similars" remains the repertory on which much of the modern practice of homoeopathy is based.

Kent edited the Journal of Homeopathics from 1897 to 1903, producing seven volumes of the journal.

Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College. Kent remained at that post until his departure in 1909 to become professor and Dean of Hering Medical College and Hospital, an institution also located in Chicago.

In November 1910, Kent was instrumental in the establishment of the Society of Homeopathicians as a means of disseminating the principles of homoeopathy promulgated by Hahnemann. The group published its own journal, The Homeopathician.

Kent wrote voluminously and his works were published in several non-English languages during the course of his life. He gained a significant number of adherents in India, a country in which several publishers of his work of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries are located.

Ideas

Kent is remembered for his naive arguments against the germ theory of infectious disease:

"The microbe is not the cause of disease. We should not be carried away by these idle allopathic dreams and vain imaginations but should correct the Élan vital."

"The bacteria is an innocent feller, and if he carries disease he carries the Simple Substance which causes disease, just as an elephant would."

As a follower of a mystical Christian religious sect headed by Emanuel Swedenborg, Kent believed that illness had spiritual causes:

"You cannot divorce medicine and theology. Man exists all the way down from his innermost spiritual, to his outermost natural."

Kent was a vitalist and believer in a "vital force".

Death and legacy

Kent died of Bright's disease on June 5, 1916, in Stevensville, Montana. He was 67 years old at the time of his death.

Not long after his death, Kent was eulogized by one contemporary as

          "Genial, gentle, devoted friend to his patients and pupils; jealous guardian of pure Homeopathy against the criticisms of those whom he considered his enemies; sensitive, embittered, retiring man in later years as he thought one after another did him wrong...; most of his patients and pupils were devoted to him and he basked in the sunshine of that devotion."

          British scholar of homoeopathy Francis Treuherz has characterized James Tyler Kent as "the ultimate homoeopath of the period when homoeopathy flourished in America." Treuherz has noted Kent's pioneering use of extremely high dilutions (called "high potencies" by adherents of homoeopathy) and "meticulous scholarship in the creation of his repertory" as among Kent's primary attributes as the homoeopathic exemplar of his generation.

List of Homeopathy Remedies

A 01 - Abrotanum 02 - Aceticum acidum 03 - Aconitum napellus 04 - Actea racemosa 05 - Aesculus hippocastanum 06 - Aethusa cynapium 07 - Agaricus muscarius 08 - Agnus castus 09 - Ailanthus glandulosa 10 - Allium cepa 11 - Aloe 12 - Alumen 13 - Alumina 14 - Ambra grisea 15 - Ammonium carbonicum 16 - Ammonium muriaticum 17 - Anacardium orientale 18 - Antimonium crudum 19 - Antimonium tartaricum 20 - Apis mellifica 21 - Apocynum cannabinum 22 - Argentum metallicum 23 - Argentum nitricum 24 - Arnica montana 25 - Arsenicum album 26 - Arsenicum iodatum 27 - Arum triphyllum 28 - Asa foetida 29 - Aurum metallicum 30 - Aurum muriaticum B 31 - Baptisia 32 - Baryta carbonica 33 - Baryta muriatica 34 - Belladonna 35 - Benzoicum acidum 36 - Berberis 37 - Borax 38 - Bromium 39 - Bryonia 40 - Bufo C 41 - Cactus grandiflorus 42 - Cadmium sulfuricum 43 - Caladium 44 - Calcarea arsenicosa 45 - Calcarea carbonica 46 - Calcarea fluorica 47 - Calcarea phosphorica 48 - Calcarea sulfurica 49 - Camphora 50 - Cannabis indica 51 - Cannabis sativa 52 - Cantharis 53 - Capsicum 54 - Carbo animalis 55 - Carbo vegetabilis 56 - Carboneum sulfuratum 57 - Carduus marianus 58 - Causticum 59 - Chamomilla 60 - Chelidonium 61 - Chininum arsenicosum 61 - Cicuta virosa 63 - Cina 64 - Cinchona (China) 65 - Cinnabaris 66 - Cistus canadensis 67 - Clematis erecta 68 - Cocculus indicus 69 - Coccus cacti 70 - Coffea 71 - Colchicum 72 - Colocynthis 73 - Conium maculatum 74 - Crotalus horridus 75 - Croton tiglium 76 - Cuprum metallicum 77 - Cyclamen

D 78 - Digitalis 79 - Drosera rotundifolia 80 - Dulcamara E 81 - Eupatorium perfoliatum 82 - Euphrasia F 83 - Ferrum metallicum 84 - Ferrum phosphoricum 85 - Fluoricum acidum G 86 - Gelsemium 87 - Glonoinum 88 - Graphites 89 - Gratiola 90 - Guaiacum H 91 - Helleborus niger 92 - Hepar sulfuris calcareum 93 - Hydrastis canadensis 94 - Hyoscyamus 95 - Hypericum I 96 - Ignatia 97 - Iodum (Iodine) 98 - Ipecacuanha K 99 - Kalium bichromicum 100 - Kalium carbonicum 101 - Kalium iodatum 102 - Kalium phosphoricum 103 - Kalium sulfuricum 104 - Kalmia 105 - Kreosotum L 106 - Lac caninum 107 - Lac vaccinum defloratum 108 - Lachesis 109 - Laurocerasus 110 - Ledum palustre 111 - Lillium tigrinum 112 - Lycopodium M 113 - Magnesia carbonica 114 - Magnesia muriatica 115 - Magnesia phosphorica 116 - Manganum 117 - Medorrhinum 118 - Mercurius 119 - Mercurius corrosivus 120 - Mercurius cyanatus 121 - Mercurius iodatus flavus 122 - Mercurius iodatus ruber 123 - Mercurius sulphuricus 124 - Mezereum 125 - Millefolium 126 - Moschus 127 - Muriaticum acidum

N 128 - Naja 129 - Natrum arsenicosum 130 - Natrum carbonicum 131 - Natrum muriaticum 132 - Natrum phosphoricum 133 - Natrum sulfuricum 134 - Nitricum acidum 135 - Nux moschata 136 - Nux vomica O 137 - Opium 138 - Oxalicum acidum P 139 - Petroleum 140 - Phosphoricum acidum 141 - Phosphorus 142 - Phytolacca 143 - Picricum acidum 144 - Platina 145 - Plumbum metallicum 146 - Podophyllum 147 - Psorinum 148 - Pulsatilla 149 - Pyrogenium R 150 - Ranunculus bulbosus 151 - Rhododendron 152 - Rhus toxicodendron 153 - Rumex crispus 154 - Ruta graveolens S 155 - Sabadilla 156 - Sabina 157 - Sanguinaria 158 - Sarsaparilla 159 - Secale cornutum 160 - Selenium 161 - Senecio aureus 162 - Senega 163 - Sepia 164 - Silicea 165 - Spigelia anthelmia 166 - Spongia tosta 167 - Squilla 168 - Stannum metallicum 169 - Staphysagria 170 - Stramonium 171 - Sulfuricum acidum 172 - Sulphur 173 - Syphillinum T 174 - Tarentula hispana 175 - Theridion 176 - Thuya occidentalis 177 - Tuberculinum bovinum V 178 - Valeriana 179 - Veratrum album Z 180 - Zincum metallicum