Doctored remedies

Qualified midwives were scarce. Once a British nurse, an exuberant matron, was hired to cope with the increasing level of fecundity 8212; she had successfully presided over the birth of several rajas and ranis. Besides assisting at 8220;home deliveries8221;, the nurse reportedly kept the husband in good humour with an unlimited fund of lewd yarns. Guffaws often echoed through the bungalow, much to the bedridden wife8217;s dismay.

In 1895 the native apothecary took over the doctoring 8212; and the planter8217;s ubiquitous medicine chest. The apothecary toured the estate on horseback, tending the sick and sometimes himself 8212; when his spirited mount grounded him unceremoniously. Now and then he doubled as a surgeon as well, his enthusiasm occasionally overriding his competence. Yanking out shaky teeth with his bare fingers was one apothecary8217;s forte.

With cholera rampant in the plains, the apothecary had to fumigate all incoming foodstuffs and inoculate all new recruits against the scourge 8212; a painful injection that left one8217;s arm sore and leaden for a week, prompting many to skip it. To foil this, all recruits were quarantined.

Malaria too was widespread. Then the planters discovered that Spathodia flowers attracted, and trapped, mosquitoes in their sticky folds. They promptly planted Spathodia saplings extensively to control the vectors. Several of these trees still survive.

Rabies then was as dreaded as it is today. Dog-bite cases had to be sent all the way to the Pasteur Institute in Coonoor 250 km away for a course of painful abdominal injections. To stem the problem, wild dogs 8212; suspected to be the source of rabies 8212; were shot at sight.

Infection was morbidly feared. A planter8217;s daughter caught sipping naughtily from a bird-bath had her bottom spanked blue. An over-protective mother routinely bandaged her two tiny tots8217; knees before they went out to play lest they grazed themselves on the germ-infested ground! And, taking no chances, each estate unfailingly maintained an isolation ward in a remote corner 8212; just what the doctor would have ordered.