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James Tyler Kent was born on March 31, 1849 at Woodhull, New York.
In 1873 he completed medical studies in allopathic, homeopathic,
naturopathic and chiropractic at Institute of Eclectic Medicine
in Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 25. But he had little regard for
homeopathy.
In 1874 he married a Baptist like himself, settled in St. Louis
and began practice. In 1876 he became the professor of anatomy at
American College of St. Louis. During the same year, his wife became
seriously ill and was cured by homeopath resulting in his complete
and enthusiastic conversion to homeopathy.
In 1881 he accepted chair of professor of anatomy of the Homeopathic
College of Missouri and then the chair of surgery. Stayed until
1888. In 1883 he became professor a of materia medica. In 1890 he
became the Dean of Professors at Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical
School of Philadelphia through 1899.
During the same year, Kent lost his first wife, studied works of
Swedenborg and adopted his philosophy. Kent met his second wife,
Clara-Louise, a practicing physician and diagnosed her as having
an incurable iatrogenic miasm of Lachesis due to too many repetitions
of dose.
In 1896 Kent and his pupils saw over 18,800 patients in one year.
From 1903 to 1909 he taught at Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago.
In 1909 he became the Professor and dean of Hering Medical College
and Hospital, Chicago.
In 1916 Kent went to his country home in Montana to rest and write
a real book but his catarrhal bronchitis turned to Brights
disease and he died mostly from years of overwork. James Tyle Kent
passed away on June 6 at Sunnyside Orchard, Montana.
Many homeopathic practitioners today still follow Kent's early
method of curing, which was to prescribe remedies using single doses
of high potencies. When he taught, he would inspire his "Kentians"
to use these higher potencies; and he held a strong belief that
homeopaths must treat patients in their entirety, including the
physical body, as well as the mental/emotional and spiritual elements,
using these high potencies. Later in his career, however, Kent began
using Hahnemann's method of starting with low potencies and working
up the scale by threes (6, 9, 12 etc.).
One of his greatest contributions to the profession of homeopathy,
and its teachings, was his completely unique style of repertory.
Although others exist, Kent's famous repertory, The Great Repertory,
is still the popular choice, and has been described as more complete,
systematic and precise with more well-described symptoms.
Kent is also known for developing "pictures" of constitutional
types of patients. A well-known example would be his description
of Sulphur as "the ragged philosopher." There are many
works based on Kent's principles, including a book by one of his
pupils, Margaret Tyler. Tyler further developed this idea of "pictures"
into a book entitled Homeopathic Drug Pictures.
Kent is considered to have been a great homeopath; and his philosophy,
homeopathic interpretations and influence have steadily continued
to grow in popularity since his death.
Books
Kent's Repertory of theHomeopathic Materia Medica, 1897
Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy, 1900
Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 1905
Loosely organized detailed lecture notes straight from the classroom.
New Remedies
Lesser Writings
Clinical Cases
What the doctor needs to know
Kent's Aphorisms and Precepts from extemporaneous lectures
Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, Head, Eye, and Vision,
corrected from the original manuscript, C.S. Sandhu
Kents Final General Repertory, Pierre Schmidt and Diwan Harish
Chand, 1980
Kents Repertorium Generale, Jost Künzli von Fimmelsberg,
1987.
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