But it took more than 80 years to realize Sullivan’s dream. Hydel power was first tapped in Nilgiris in 1904 (first in India too!) in Katery to supply power for the newly set up Cordite Factory. 1908 power came to Madras city. The next town to get power was Ooty in 1925 when St. Stephen’s church and Nilgiri Library were lighted.

In that year Sir C.P Ramasamy Iyer, one of the builders of modern Nilgiris, and member of the Governor’s Council, dared to plan a mega hydel power scheme, the Pykara scheme. Critics called it ‘Pythiakara’ (Mad) scheme. But Sir C.P had full faith in the newly appointed Chief Engineer of  newly created Government Electricity Department. The Pykara dam, then the highest head in Asia, was commissioned in 1932 generating power,  and continue to do, at the least cost.

Sullivan’s dream of turning Coimbatore into an industrial town was realized when all the mills were gradually electrified)

Sir Henry George Howard, (1883-1968) was born in UK and educated in USA, specializing in hydroelectric engineering. He also served in the military. After serving as engineer is several countries he was appointed Chief Engineer of Madras Presidency. He was in fact directly responsible for the rapid development of hydro-electric and thermal power in Madras Presidency. He remained as Chief Engineer until 1948. After that the Pakistan Government appointed him adviser in the planning and construction of their hydro-electric schemes.

He also advised the Governments of the Punjab, United Provinces, Central Provinces, North-West Frontier Province, and Ceylon : and the States of Mysore, Travancore, Cochin, Kohlapur, Mewar and Bhopal.

He retired in 1949 and settled in Madeira, Portugal. But  he continued to follow  with anxious interest the fortunes of hydroelectric schemes in India-in particular the Kundah hydro-electric scheme, the development of which he considered an example of Commonwealth cooperation at its best. Sir Henry was knighted in 1939.

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Major and Brevet Liuet-Colonel James Law Lushington Morant of the Royal Engineers was born in Belgaum, India to a Madras Army Chaplain. He joined Madras Sappers and Miners in January, 1862. Before that he served in PWD in Bombay, where his contributions still stand and a café is said to be named after him in the whereabouts of the Victoria Terminus.

When he was posted as District Engineer of Nilgiris, though his jurisdiction did not cover the railways, he launched a relentless campaign for a mountain railway starting with an elaborate report of his own in 1855 which answered all the doubts of  the worst skeptics of the proposal. He followed it up with his  paper  ‘Mountain Railways for the Nilgiri Hills’  in 1874 running to 44 pages with several pictures.  It was at Major Morant’s instigation the famous Riggenbach of the Rigi system of mountain railway paid a visit to the Nilgiris. Alas ! he did not live to see his work becoming a reality in 1899.

The present scenic ghat road, wide and with a gentle gradient, from Kotagiri to Mettupalyam  was traced and constructed by Major Morant in 1872-75.

Lamenting that, ‘ The site of Ootacamund has been well chosen but from its commencement it has never been systematically treated, the town having been allowed to grow up uncontrolled’, Major Morant, singlehandedly, drew up the present system of drinking water and drainage plan for the town in 1870. In 1877  Morant, drew up a scheme for improving the Marlimand supply by adding three more reservoirs.

As a true son a Chaplin, Major Morant, ‘who had a special penchant for ecclesiastical architecture’, built the Chancel of All Saints Church and the Roman Catholic church (St. Joseph’s) at Coonoor, the Anglican church (St. George’s)  at Wellington and the Protestant Church at Gudalur.

Chisholm and Morant worked together on many buildings including the Lawrence school buildings and the old Breeks School (now the Court complex). It was Morant’s  idea to put up a clock tower to the court buildings in 1878 when the question arose as to what to do with the public subscription that was collected for a reception to then Prince of Wales  who cancelled the visit owing to prevalence of cholera epidemic.

Morant worked with Chisholm on many Madras landmarks also like the Post and Telegraph Office.

In his capacity as an architect Colonel Morant entered into the competition for the Municipal Hall and offices at Bombay in 1884 and obtained the second prize of Rs. 3,000, the successful competitor being Mr. Chisholm. Morant built the hall and the offices.

Colonel Morant took much interest in all branches of his profession and wrote extensively. He also collaborated with the French Astronomer  Janssen during his visit to the Nilgiris to observe the solar eclipse.

Major Morant died in Australia on 17^th June 1886 due to a terminal disease. A memorial plaque in St. Mary’s Church, Chennai commemorates him. 

Image: Like many benefactors of Nilgiris, Major Morant too did not leave behind any of his own pictures. When we  did the Nilgiri history calendar 2019 we showed his back talking to the  founder Roman Abt as a mark of remembrance.

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This Institute came into exist­ence in 1906. The affairs of the Institute are administered  by a Central Committee, composed partly of ex-officio and partly of elected members.  Though it was originally start­ed as an anti-rabies research centre, the Institute has traversed a long way in research into other virus diseases. The Institute has acquired international status and reputation on account of its success in reducing the incidence of paralysis, which is stated to be one of the after-effects of anti-­rabies vaccine treatment.

Anti-rabic treatment was given to patients from all over South India at the Institute itself almost from its inception till 1922. As people found it very difficult for financial and other reasons to reach Coonoor for this treatment, it was felt safe to decentralise the treatment.. It has been computed that 2,93,611 patients have been treated at this Institute and its numerous subsidiary centres during the pe­riod of 48 years of its existence. A clinical laboratory was  started as early as 1924 to which a biochemical section was added in 1948.

During the Second World War, the orga­nisation of an extensive Blood Bank service in the province made it necessary to have plasma processing laboratories and the Pasteur Institute, Coonoor, open­ed in 1942 a section for this pur­pose.  Be­sides its pioneering and leading role in research in rabies, the Institute has played a noteworthy part in public health work by serving as a depot for the distri­bution of prophylactic vaccines for cholera, assisting in the prompt diagnosis of contagious epidemics like cholera, plague, enteric fever, etc., and, at times, helping directly in prophylactic mass inoculation when such epi­demics were threatening to get out of control.

A  self-con­tained laboratory for the study of viruses other than that of rabies  has been recognised by the W.H.O. as its Influenza Centre in India and work on in­fluenza, vaccine and small-pox is now in progress at the laboratory. It may be interesting to note that the first strain of influenza virus in India was isolated here.

The establishment of a Pasteur Institute at Coonoor was rendered possible by the generosity of Mr. Henry Phipps, an American. Henry Phipp (1839–1930) grew up in poverty-stricken conditions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along with Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) another immigrant to the US from the UK. Phipps’s close association with Carnegie led him to invest in 1861 in a steel-works operation – the Carnegie Company. In 1901, this operation became the US Steel upon sale to J. P. Morgan. At this point of time, Phipps retired, far wealthier than what he expected to achieve in his life. He spent the rest of his life donating generously to scientific efforts made both within the US and elsewhere. Phipps was of the conviction that those who acquired great wealth should return it for public good and create institutions dedicated for that purpose. Phipps came to India in 1903 presumably to witness the Delhi Durbar, planned by Lord Curzon. Phipps’s visit to India enabled him to perceive the pains of famine, which had swept India on a massive scale during 1899–1900. Phipps volunteered to support the science of agriculture in India, which he thought would enable educating the people of India towards achieving food security. He donated 1 lakh US dollars.

Phipps’s concerns were particularly stimulated by the number of people of lower social strata, who died of snake bites and wild-animal bites without appropriate medical attention and support. At that time, only the Indian Pasteur Institute at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh existed. IPIK functioned from August 1900 treating people, who suffered dog bites and similar problems; However, the distance to Kasauli from southern India was so far that it could not be reached easily without several days of travel. Phipps contributed  50,000 US dollars  to start a second Pasteur Hospital in south India.

The Pasteur Institute of Southern India started functioning in Coonoor from 6 April 1907. John Wolfran Cornwall of the Indian Medical Service was the first Director, who served for many years, Anderson H. McKendrick, also of the Indian Medical Service, was the Assistant Director, M. Kesava Pai served as the Assistant Surgeon and S. Ramasamy Aiyar was the Hospital Assistant.  J. W. Cornwall, T. H. Gloster, K. R. K. lyengar, H. W. Mulligan, M. L. Ahuja and N. Veeraraghavan were  its successive directors.

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This is exactly what Major-General Sir Robert McCarrison said on Nutrition in Health and Disease in 1936. “ It would be wrong to suppose  that poverty is the only cause of faulty nutrition. Access to abundance of food does not necessarily protect from the effects of food deficiency… prejudice, ignorance, habit often prevent the proper use and choice of health giving foods…  I would add indifference, neglect, and the weak indulgence of their children by many well-to-do parents which fosters tastes and habits detrimental to normal growth, nutrition, and health”.  He further said, “If we look upon infection of whatever kind, be it due to microbe, protozoa, metazoa, or invisible virus, it may be said that the two chief causes of disease are faulty food and dirt”.

Who is Sir  McCarrison? (Excerpts from my father’s 1954 article)

Sir MacCarrison was the founder of the Nutrition Research  Laboratories (NRL)  in Coonoor in 1918 with one  Assistant in a single room on the first floor of the Pas­teur Institute. Since then the history of nutrition research in India became synonymous with the his­tory of NRL. 

The evil of malnutrition was unknown until the Indian Research Fund Association came into existence in 1911 as a non-official organization.  Sir  McCarrison, who was then a young officer in the Indian Medical Service, was keenly inte­rested in the problem of diet and disease. The genius of this young medical man resulted in the establishment of a nutrition re­search unit on a humble scale.  In short, his work brought out the important relation of malnutrition to the inci­dence of disease in general.

On his retirement in 1935 he settled in Oxford where he con­tinued, by his writings, lectures and broadcasts, to devote himself to the spread of knowledge of nu­trition and the relation of faulty nutrition to disease.

When first he came to Coonoor in 1918, McCarrison had a reputa­tion as an original thinker  which was  recognized by the Government of India. The Royal Commission on Agriculture visited the Laboratories in Coonoor to study link between farming and nutrition.

Since 1937, the Laboratory trained  medical gradua­tes, science graduates, health visi­tors, social welfare workers, teach­ers,  rationing officers  and others in the theory and practice of nutrition during summer months

Sir  McCarrison, was succeeded by  Dr. W.R. Aykroyd, who was formerly connected with the Public Health Organization of the League of Na­tions.  Distinguished  Indin doctors like Dr. Patwardhan also served the institution till it was shifted to Hyderabad.

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Dr. Baikie was among the first medical professionals to come to Nilgiris soon after its opening up in 1819. As Asst. Surgeon he served in the original Convalescent Depo at Ooty  and later at Kotagiri and many places.

Dr. Baike’s fame lies in his prolific writings to promote the healthfulness of the Nilgiris. Ironically, the climate of Nilgiris which he glorified so highly was not kind to his own health forcing him to return to his country).

Apart from his contributions to medical journals, Dr. Baikie  published, in 1834,  the first ever guide to  “The Neilgherries” which did more than any other publication to promote Nilgiris in India and outside. The book, edited by W.H. Smoult, a Judge of the Supreme Court,  was so popular that it was republished 23 years after in 1857 at the request of Governor Harris. Sir Frederick Price  in his monumental work ‘Ootacamund-a History’ in 1906 quoted from Dr. Baikie’s book profusely.

 Dr. Robert Baikie, (1799-1889) belonged to a landed gentry in Scotland,  He was educated at Edinburgh Univ (MD, 1820) and was a surgeon in the East India Co.’s Madras Army (Asst Surgeon, 1820; Surgeon, 1834; retired 1844).  He returned from India in indifferent health and made a practice of walking many miles every day. He practiced in Edinburgh and treated his patients increasingly with homeopathic remedies.  He married in 1852 Helen Elizabeth but had no issue. He died in Edinburgh, 5 August 1889.

Dr. Baikie was the first secretary of the Ooty Club and an active member of the Nilgiri Library. Baikie House ( I think it is presently with TNEB) at Ooty was built around 1829 with a government grant. Later it passed into many hands including that of H.B.Grigg, the author of the Manual of the Nilgiris (1880).

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image courtesy : https://www.geni.com/people/Robert-Baikie-of-Tankerness/6000000034313943228

(Governor General of India Lord Dalhousie was confined to the Nilgiris for nearly nine months in 1855 on health grounds. He had to attend to several important things, not least of them being the planning of the great Indian railway. He badly needed a line of communication.  He turned to his doctor friend O’Shaughnessy who laid the difficult telegraph line up the mountains in record time. The doctor had pioneered the telegraph line in 1853 in Calcutta and later extended it to Agra, Madras and Bombay.  He took over as  Director-General of Telegraphs in India in 1852, and held that post till his retirement  in  1861.)

William Brooke O’Shaughnessy was an Irish physician famous for his wide-ranging scientific work in pharmacology, chemistry, and inventions. His medical research led to the development of intravenous therapy and introduced the therapeutic use of Cannabis sativa to Western medicine.

His first stint in India was marked by work in the subjects of botanical pharmacology, chemistry, galvanic electricity, and underwater conduction, among others. O’Shaughnessy established his reputation by successfully relieving the pain of rheumatism and stilling the convulsions of an infant with cannabis. He eventually popularized its use back in England. In 1837 he published his independent design of an electric motor.

The doctor was a supporter of the idea of education in native languages in medicine. He also wanted locally available sources of medicine to be utilized to provide inexpensive aid. As a teacher, he took students on field trips to the Botanical Garden to introduce them to the local medicinal plants. His  major book the Bengal Dispensatory and Pharmacopeia  included an appendix on the “improvement of Bengal pottery”  since earthenware imports from Europe were proving to be expensive.

In 1856 the doctor was knighted by Queen Victoria for his work on the telegraph in India. In 1860, O’Shaughnessy returned to Europe for sick leave where he remained in obscurity until his death from senile asthenia in  1889.

As Director General of Telegraphs he used to tour widely and make surprise checks. Once he made surprise check from Ooty to Coonoor. The lineman at Coonoor responded  “ All clear…by the way is the old bully around?” Prompt came the reply, “ Very much and you are fined Rs1 for impertinence”.

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