Translated from the latest German editions by R. E. Dudgeon, M.D.
With annotations by Richard Hughes LRCPE. 
This work consists of 2 volumes.
Published by: B Jain publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.

Contents of volume 1 :
Translators preface.
Preface by author .
Spirit of the Homeopathic Medical Doctrine
Preamble
Total 37 drugs ( from Aconite to Ipecac )
No. of pages – 718. 

Contents of volume 2 :
Nota Bene For my Reviewers
Examination of the sources of the common materia medica
A Reminiscence.
The medical observer a fragment.
The power of small dose of homeopathic medicine .
Total 30 drugs ( ledum to verbascum )
No. of pages -- 709. 

Translator’s preface
The materia medica pura as left to us by Hahnemann consist of six  volumes, two of which ( vol 1 $ 2 ) had reached a third edition ,while  the remainder did not get beyond the second .
Dates of publication of these volumes are :
Volume 1 -- 1830.
Volume 2 -- 1833.
Volume 3 $ 4 -- 1825.
Volume 5 -- 1826.
Volume 6 – 1827.
Earlier editions, the pathogenesis of the various medicines not arranged in the same way as they are in the latest .
 
Thus in the former editions -- Hahnemann’s observations are put first, separately numbered ; the symptoms observed by his disciples under his superintendence and those derived from the work of other observers being arranged together in a different list and specially numbered .
 
In the third edition, to which only the first two volumes attained, the arrangement is different. Here all the symptoms of each medicine whether observed by Hahnemann himself or his disciples or taken from the old school authorities are combined in one schema and numbered continuously.
 
Hahnemann’s own observations being distinguished – by having no name or sign attached, while those of his pupils are indicated by an abbreviation of the name of each appended to their respective observations. The authorities of the old school are named after the symptom for which they are responsible.
 
Another peculiarity in the work, as it has been left to us, is that the medicines are not arranged alphabetically. Each volume contain a varying number of medicines, arranged alphabetically according to their common German names, but there is no attempt to maintain the alphabetical arrangement in respect to the whole work.
 
If the work had been translated as such (German original), this would give 6 volumes of various sizes and their contents differently arranged. It would reproduce the work as it exists in the German original, but it would like that, be difficult to use as a book of reference; and if the minor details of the German work were also preserved it would involve a considerable additional amount of printing without any advantage there from.
 
 
MERITS OF TRANSLATED WORK
 
1.  Medicines arranged alphabetically, symptoms arranged in the plan adopted in the latest editions.
2. To give out the work in two handsome volume of equal size. (Instead of publishing the work in six volumes of very unequal size, with no general alphabetical arrangement of the medicines.)
3. This of greater utility and literary homogeneity of the work.
 
PLAN ADOPTED FOR THE WORK (Translation)

The essays distributed throughout the original volume have been divided between the two volume of the translation, so as to form appropriate prefaces to each.
The alteration introduced by Hahnemann in his latest editions with regard to the indication of the name of the prover by an abbreviation has been extended to all the medicines in this translation These abbreviations are printed in italics.  
4.  Hahnemann’s abbreviations of his provers name are not always the same, but uniformity has been maintained in this translation.
 
The names of old school authorities for symptoms are printed in small capitals – can see it at a glance by the student or a casual reader, whether the symptom is one produced by an intentional proving, or is the result of the generally accidental poisoning or over dose of an old school observer.
 
As in the original, the symptoms with no name or abbreviation appended are those observed by Hahnemann himself. Subjoined is a list of Hahnemann’s fellow provers, the abbreviation of their names employed in this work and the medicines proved by each.
 
Eg : Stapf , Ernst ---- Stf ( acon, ars, arn, asr, bel, bry, cam, can, cha, chi,)
Of these provers Adam was a Russian physician .
Von Gersdorff -- a noble man residing in Eisenach.

Nenning a surgeon who furnished many of the symptoms of materia medica of Hartlaub and Trinks , from whose work Hahnemann took some symptoms, Indicated by the abbreviation of their names – Hb, Ts , either singly or conjointly. The remainders of the provers are more properly Hahnemann’s own disciples.
Most, if not all of these provers were medical men many of them well known as eminent practitioners of homeopathy, and some distinguished by their valuable contributions to Homoeopathic literature.

Many of the symptoms have the time of occurrence after taking the medicine. This is indicated by contractions between brackets. Here “m ‘’means minutes, ‘ h ‘ hours and ‘ d ‘ days.
 
This is not the first English translation of Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura. In 1846 Dr. Hempel published a translation. But as Dr. Hughes has pointed out, Hempel’s translation is extremely imperfect.  

The present is the first attempt to give a faithful and complete English translation of the latest editions of the work. Dr. Hughes helped in this work. He has done the careful revision of the proof sheets and has given numerous suggestions of improved versions of the original , where by both the faithfulness and readableness of the translation have been greatly improved.
 
It is of course, impossible to render exactly into English the expressions peculiar to the German language or to give an exact translation of every word. So the translator has given the English equivalents for German phrases where such exist or to give English expressions that most nearly correspond with the German originals.    

There are certain German words and phrases used by Hahnemann, for which we have no precise English equivalent. Sometimes two totally different things are expressed by one English word only.
 
For eg :  
The German Hals – used for both throat and neck.
Brust – either chest or mammae.
Fuss -- denotes foot, sometimes leg upto knees, sometimes the whole lower extremities.
Schenkel – thigh, sometimes leg, occasionally the whole lower limb .
Schooss – the groin or iliac region occasionally the whole hypogastrium.
Gesicht -- sight or face.
Druckend – pressive sometime aching.

And it is not always easy to determine which English equivalent should be used, no hard and fast rule can be adopted and the translator must determine from the context or sometimes from his “inner consciousness ” which translation should be employed.
 
As a rule druckend, followed by ‘ auf ’ or ‘ an ’ must mean pressive, whereas if followed by ’ in ’ it probably means aching.

Forwards by Hughes who assisted Dr. Dudgeon in this work
 
Hughes refers to the Hahnemann’s quotations from authors.
These are absent from few of his pathogenesis and in many are very numerous . It is obvious that no new editions of a work so full of citations can be satisfactory, which does not examine these in their originals for purpose of verification and of correction ( if necessary ) . Therefore to make this translation of the Materia Medica Pura as accurate as possible, it should be desirable that all the citations contained in this work should be verified from their original sources and renewed from thence. It often adds to the value of a symptom that, we should know the object and circumstances of its occurrence, the dose by which it was produced and so forth Hahnemann rarely gives such information. We long for the daybooks of the experiments, which gave us these, in the case of the cited symptom we have them. On the first mention of any authority in each pathogenesis, he has stated the nature of his observations, and to each symptom that has required it, he has appended such explanations and corrections as might be necessary to set it forth in its full meaning and value. All these matter will be found in the notes at the bottom of the pages, designated by small figures 1, 2, etc and divided by a line from Hahnemann’s own annotations which have the usual *, +, etc.                                                                                                 

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