Assignment week 1 (due by the beginning of class session week 2)
Find rubrics in the Synthesis Repertory, to represent each of the symptoms below. I've chosen symptoms that are highly characterizing for each of several remedies commonly indicated in acute otitis media.
Write out the rubric completely (but without its list of remedies).
There may be more than one good rubric for each symptom - you only need to include one good fit for each, for this exercise.
To gain the most from this assignment, and to make it more than merely an exercise in busywork -
 Reflect on the remedy, and the significance of this symptom for the remedy, as you are looking up the rubric;
 Pay attention to the wording of each rubric, and where it is found in the Repertory - you'll be needing to find this rubric again one day, in the clinical setting, with the clock ticking;
 Look over the remedies in each rubric, and do a quick mental comparison/contrast between the remedies you know in that rubric - at whatever level of appreciation of these remedies you might have at this stage in your studies. e.g., with the rubric for #1 below, I'd reflect "hmm ... Belladonna and Aconite are not the only "sudden" remedies in our materia medica, there are 53 other remedies in this rubric ... and Borax is marked as strongly here as Belladonna - gotta read about Borax sometime ... Phosphorus is here, whatdaya know ... interesting, I don't really see any other of the "otitis media" remedies we've covered in here, just Belladonna and Aconite ...".
The only thing you need to turn in here, is your list of rubrics.
If you'd like a little extra credit on this assignment, turn some of these musings in with your list of rubrics.
Symptoms characterizing for Belladonna:
(1) Starts suddenly
(2) Mucus membranes are dry
SKIN-DRY-accompanied by-mucous membranes (no remedies, found this one on radar)
GENERALS-MUCOUS MEMBRANES-complaints of-dryness (41) (this one seems good, contains lots of polychrests tho)
GENERALS-dry-internal parts p1928
(3) Delirium with fever
(4) Dry fever (without perspiration)
SKIN-DRY-burning p1848 (acon ars, bry bell, alch lyc, nux, op, phos, puls stram, valer)
Symptoms characterizing for Pulsatilla:
(5) Nasal discharge thick, pudding-like
NOSE-discharge-viscid, tough p556 (bov, cham, hydr, kali, stan)
(6) Nasal discharge yellow
NOSE-discharge-yellow p577 (aur, bry, calc, carb, hep, hydr, kali, lyc, nit, puls, sep, sulph, tub)
(7) Nasal discharge bland, non-irritating
NOSE-discharge-creamy p553 (only 2 remedies, small ones, this can't be the rubric indicated)
(8) Clings to his mother
*MIND-clinging-children, in (6 remedies)
subrubric, child clings to the hand of the mother (5 remedies)
MIND-HOLDING-mothers hand-child constantly holding (only 4 remedies)
Mind-fear-alone, of being p114
Symptoms characterizing for Chamomilla:
(9) Impossible to satisfy (hint: look for a word derived from the Latin word for Goat - "capri" - implying "goat-like" behavior)
Mind-capricious-rejecting the things for which he has been longing
(10) Needs to be carried
Mind-carried-desire to be
Symptoms characterizing for Silica:
(11) Discharge from the ear like crumply cheese
Ear-discharge-cheesy p502 (Hep, Sil)
Ear-discharges-offensive-cheese, like (also only 2)
Symptoms characterizing for Calcarea sulphurica:
(12) Discharge from the ear is irritating, excoriating the tissues
Ear-discharge-excoriating p502 (ars, bov, calc, hep, sulph, tell)
(13) Discharge from the ear is bloody
Ear-discharge-bloody p502 (calc, merc, psor, sil)
(14) Discharge from the ear is particularly malodorous (the word needed comes from the Latin "foetēre", "to stink")
Ear-discharge-fetid p502 (aur, lyc, merc, psor, sulph, tell)
Symptoms characterizing for Hepar sulph:
(15) Very sensitive to cold, even uncovering an arm aggravates
GENERALS-UNCOVERING-single part agg (9)(bry, hep, rhus, sil)
GENERALS-uncovering agg (86)... - least
(16) Anger at the smallest things
Mind-anger-trifles, at p13 (acon, arts, cham, lots of others, all only 2 or less)
(17) Oppositional, resistant (Mary, Mary, quite ...)
Mind-contrary p48 (anac, arg, cham, hep, dulc, merc, podo, tarent)
Symptoms characterizing for Mercurius solubilis:
(18) Soaks the bedsheets at night with night sweat
Perspiration-sleep-during-agg (agg part isn't right)p1837 (bell, caps, cham, chel, chin, con hyos, mez, podo, plat, puls, rhus, sel, sil, thus)
That's two for podo, no idea what it is, but is contrary and has night sweats.
(19) Scalloped tongue (edges carry the indents of the teeth, like a scallop shell)
Mouth-indented-tongue p677 (ars, chel, merc, rhus, sep)
Symptoms characterizing for Viola odorata:
(20) Ears have been draining, like, forever
???????????looked and looked, nothing under ears catarrh, ears discharge, ears drain....
Append 2 questions/confusions/observations inspired by this exercise (this is an essential part of this assignment).
First let me say that I have synthesis at home, and spent several hours searching for rubrics in there, but then this morning before the assignment is due I came to see if I could find better ones using the search function of radar. Sometimes this helps me find things....
Why does radar list rubrics in full complexity without including a single remedy? Is it because other repertories have rubrics for it? If so, how does one know which repertory to try?
Is there any effort to streamline the known remedy descriptions into modern language? Or to at least remove some of the redundancy, clarify some of the vagueness, of the existing repertories (discharge, catarrh, etc)?