This book review is reprinted with the permission of the American Institute of Homeopathy
925 E. 17th Avenue
Denver, CO 80218

Concordant Materia Medica, Second Edition
by Frans Vermeulen
Hard-bound, 1686 pages
ISBN#90-76189-02-1
Reviewed by George Guess, M.D., D.Ht.

Frans Vermeulen has penned an impressive tome in the Concordant Materia Medica. For those unfamiliar with the first edition, it consisted of almost one thousand pages and represented a compendium of symptoms culled from the works of Allen, Boericke, Boger, Cowperthwaite, Clarke, Kent, Lippe, Phatak, Pulford, and Vermeulen, all edited to weed out redundancies and written in a terse style to save space, the author's intention being to produce a work suitable for everyday, portable use. In this he succeeded admirably. The Concordant, in my mind, replaces both Boericke and Phatak as a desktop materia medica reference volume. It is vastly more thorough and accurate.

For the second edition Vermeulen decided, after very careful analysis, that the inclusion of Hering's work, both his The Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica and Condensed Materia Medica, was essential for completeness. Thus have 700 pages been added to the original version. It's a scholarly and inspiring work, one obviously born of devotion to homeopathy. It had to have involved an immense amount of work.

All symptoms entered are numerically coded for the contributing author. Additionally, symptoms are categorized according to the following schema: SE for sensations as if, PA for pains, and OB for objective symptoms. This framework allows for more handy symptom searches. The layout resembles that of Boericke, starting with Characteristics, then Mind, Head, etc. Modalities follow near the end, then Conditions (target groups or most suitable conditions), then Relations (containing Clarke's comparisons and follow-up remedies), and lastly Causations.

Occasionally, in some of the Mind sections especially, Vermeulen has added some more up-to-date symptoms not mentioned by any of the older authors.

This volume concerns itself with the tried-and- true remedies, those that have been around and been used for quite a while, and omits the newer remedies which have but recently been described. (These latter are very frequently found nicely summarized in Vermeulen's Synoptic Materia Medica, Volumes 1 and 2.)

Because of the volume of symptoms generated by so thorough a compilation, Vermeulen has added some sections; e.g., Vision, Hearing, Food & Drink, Teeth, Cough, Sputum, Upper Limbs, Lower Limbs, Dreams.

The book's dimensions measure approximately 8" x 6" x 2.5" (thickness). It is sturdily bound in an attractive dark green cover with gold lettering. The paper is more substantial than that used in most editions of Boericke's materia medica, and the print is easy on the eyes.

Vermeulen's additions to our homeopathic literature are fast becoming legion. I consider each of his works as essential desktop prescribing aids. I take the liberty here of speaking on behalf of the entire homeopathic community and thank him for his herculean efforts.

In summary, Vermeulen's Concordant Materia Medica, Second Edition sets a new standard as the most complete yet portable materia medica extant. Unless one prefers referring to 10 separate authors' works in his or her routine materia medica perusals, and lugging them hither and yon should he ever travel afar to work, it is an essential work for every practicing homeopath. It surpasses in both accuracy and breadth all other portable materiae medicae available.

JAIH Spring 1998, Vol. 91, No. 1