The surgeon in the wilderness

By Amal HEWAVISSENTI

R.L. Spittel's multi-faceted personality grossly represents a person's capacity to be a prolific writer, a poet, a surgeon, and a lover of the jungle. He descends from a Dutch family who distinguished themselves as medical professionals in the country since the 17 century. Reginald Lionel Spittel (or the philanthropic surgeon) ever stayed poised to lavish his unfailing sympathy and encouraging support for the poor people living amidst the atrocities of nature and especially Sri Lankan aborigines ("Adivasi") living in hardly accessible regions in Vanni.

He was on certain occasions, seen nursing a Veddah child in Colombo with the same undisguised love and care that he would have handled his own child with. Spittel endeavoured to establish the premise that Sri Lankan aborigines (Veddah people) naturally constitute an integral part of our community and they should by no means be deemed outcasts or primitively under developed people.

Contribution to medicine

At the same time, his invention, explanations and varying researches are indelibly recorded in the history of Sri Lankan medicine and they still stay unchallenged. R.L. Spittel's impressive discoveries in the field of surgery are embodied in his books titled Surgical Ward Work, Essentials on Surgery and Framboesia Tropic which were subsequently used by medical students as handbooks during the decades 1920-1930.

Furthermore, he was recognised to be an internationally reputed surgeon who was consequentially honoured with the award CBE for an enlightening article published in the British Medical Journal. He assumed duties as the chief medical officer in-charge of the accident ward of Colombo General Hospital. In addition, Spittel practically pioneered blood transfusion in Sri Lanka and his suggestions based on novel methodologies of treating a wounded patient were completely practical and effectual.

His idea of Veddah people

Spittel's boundless enthusiasm in scrutinising the peculiar lifestyle of Veddah people (Sri Lankan aborigines) made him visit the jungles continually and call on Veddah people even though he was severely wounded in his left hand. He is said to have had hairbreadth escapes from fatal accidents on his frequent visits to the jungle, but nothing on earth could debar him from exploring and haunting in jungles. He establishes his personal theory that India and Sri Lanka co-existed in the prehistoric times, but later Sri Lanka was separated from India by the geographical process of sea-erosion.

He personally believes that Veddah people in Sri Lanka bear anthropological affinities to certain cultural traits of Indian communities. He says that Veddah people immigrated to Sri Lanka from India thousands of years previously when India and Sri Lanka existed as one country. Yet Spittel takes particular care to welcome other versions or interpretations regarding the origin of Veddah people in Sri Lanka.

Interview to The Ceylon Observer

Spittel makes a spectacular revelation of what had transpired in his early encounters with Veddah people in his interview with Yustus Wijesinghe published in The Ceylon Observer magazine (13 October, 1966).

"Veddah people call me "Sudu Hoora" (meaning "White Brother"). On my first visit to the Veddah people, the Veddah ladies let out a piercing scream and children began to cry in fright of my 'alien presence'. I still re-live a nightmarish incident on one of my visits to Veddah people." Once I heard a woman screeching out of pain at labour in Polbedda. Immediately I ran to the place and declared, on fine checking, that the pregnant woman was to be hospitalised for Caesarean Section. Yet the other Veddah people vehemently opposed my 'unintelligibly strange suggestion'. They seemed to deem it a flagrant violation of their cultural norms....""Ultimately I had to witness the pregnant woman die just in front of me (in spite of my position as surgeon)! It is sheer hard luck for a surgeon to see a patient die before him. We experience the distress much more than anyone else....."

His works

Christine Spittel Wilson, his one and only daughter too was a born writer who inherited much of her father's flair for recording experiences picturesquely. She relished the challenge of compiling her father's biography with all the exciting events and experiences in his life in Sri Lanka. Her book "The surgeon in the wilderness" is a tremendously successful attempt to present R.L. Spittel's biography posthumously.

Spittel's works "Vanished Trails" and "Savage Sanctuary" focus on his liberal reflections on life and culture of the Veddah people in Sri Lanka. Apart from that his highly readable novel White Wild Boy is indeed a captivating tale based on life in the wilderness. The novel is woven around an actual episode in which a Dutch boy is marooned on an island (Sri Lanka) when his ship has been ripped apart by a typhoon. The boy stranded in the depths of the dense jungle encounters a Veddah 'Kekuli' (a lass) and begins to live with her thereafter. The novel beautifully represents their life packed with exciting drama in the jungles.

Apart from that Spittel penned his dramatic experiences in "Far off things" and "Wild Ceylon" - two immortal researches that were dedicated to his father Frederick George Spittel who impressed on young Spittel an inexhaustible love for jungle. Spittle's poetic sketches were published posthumously under the title of "Leaves of the Jungle' by Christine Spittle, his daughter.

His life

His father Frederic George Spittel was the regional surgeon for Tangalle, but he had served in a number of districts such as Hambantota, Puttalam and Kurunegala. Young Spittel fully managed to catch glimpses of life of Sri Lankans as he had more chances to travel to various regions with his father. He married Calribel Vendette Francis, the daughter of G. Vendette a brigadier. His role as a lecturer at Ceylon Medical College and his service at Colombo General Hospital as a surgeon were a national mission. It is said that Spittel's treatments had a surprising magic on the patients who recuperated on the first dose of medicine administered by him.

Loris - a magazine for environment

He was highly conducive to the establishment of the wildlife park of Wilpattu. He loved not only the jungle, but also the animals in it. For the first time he declared that protected jungles, tanks, waterways are essential for the balanced existence of wildlife and even went to the extend of delivering public lectures on the importance of wild animals and jungles for the existence of humans.

In 1937, he launched a special magazine "Loris" in order to raise awareness about the vitality of jungles and wild animals and to stress man's responsibility of preserving them. He edited the magazine until 1964 and practically brought it to international fame. This magazine of uninterrupted publication since 1937, is one of the oldest magazines in the country and still carries its elementary message of preserving jungles and wild animals.

R.L. Spittel has acted as the first Chairman of Dutch-Burgher Association and he has been a reputed chairman in the Rotary Club.

This great man who was born on December 8, 1881 breathed his last on September 3, 1969. in the latter stage of his life, he avoided visiting Veddah people owing to his failingl health, but the Veddah leader, accompanied by his men repeatedly visited him and inquired after his health. They extremely loved their "Sudu Hoora".