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by Kasturiarachchi Warnakulasuriya

Dr. R.L. Spittel's 122nd Birth Anniversary fell on December 9. This article is in his remembrance.

When we talk of eminent personalities in the calibre of Dr. R.L. Spittel, it comes to my mind, the services rendered by the Dutch Burgher community in the fields of Medical, Education, Defence, Political Administration, Trade etc.

This had been possible as one of the advantages of Colonial rule in then Ceylon in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

If you focus your attention to this dynasty, you come across a person called Jan Laurence Spittel who had come to Ceylon from Saxony in 1760, and there by you come across Drs. Fedrick John Spittel, Noel Spittel - the live wire of the present Castle Street hospital. Dr. Richard Lionel Spittel LMS (Cey.) MRCS (Eng.) LRCP (Eng.) FRCS (Eng.), hailed from a respectable, educated Dutch Burgher family in Colombo was born exactly 122 years to-date.

Before going to his annals of authority on the jungle environment and the Veddah community of Ceylon, let us examine the role play he accomplished in the Medical Profession in this country.

When many a contemporary of the early 20th century, who passed through the portals of the Ceylon Medical College, satisfied with the basic qualifications of Licentiate in Medicine & Surgery, which was only an equivalent as a Diploma for present MBBS, Dr. Spittel pursued higher studies in the Medical Profession to its highest echelon-FRCS.

He was the third FRCS holder in then Ceylon; the first and second being Dr. S.C. Paul and Dr. A.M. De Silva.

This rare feat, he could achieve as a youth of only 24 years of age! So what does the higher education of the day with regards to these eminent medical doctors depict? LMS-the basic qualification available at the time in then Ceylon, must have been in the highest order with qualitative, dynamic, and wholesome education.

Those who proceeded to England for higher medical degrees from then Ceylon in the likes of Dr. Spittel must have had "plain sailing" for their MRCS, LRCP, FRCS in prestigious English Universities.

This is an instance where the relevant authorities of higher education must think over the deteriorating standards of present day University Degrees as a whole, in any discipline.

Another present day sad story echoes and re-echoes with the yoeman services, Dr. Spittel had rendered as a Surgeon appointed to G.H. in 1905 and as a Lecturer in Anatomy in the Medical College.

It is quite evident that he had been one of the few role-models of the famous Hippocrates Oath. Let a medical doctor-an old Brigade who had followed the foot-steps of Hippocrates to the letter, be a shining example to the present day young doctors.

It is no wonder that the SLMA (then Ceylon Branch of the British Medical Association) has had this unique gentleman as President in their annals of 1944/45. His induction to this tenure of office, had been fully endorsed by his literati. Dr. Spittel had been a "man of letters".

His contributions to the Medical Profession were in the form of "Preliminary Course Surgery", "Surgical Ward Work" and "Framboesia Tropical".

His literary pursuits lead to the formation of a literary club called "Eighty Club" along with then Royal College Principal Marrs Reid.

His life and works of the medical career are a jem of authority to the present day medical scholars, who happen to be a handful today.

His first love-sharing and caring for Lanka's aborigines was in his blood, I believe. Why do I say so? He was born to Dr. F.G. Spittel, a provincial Surgeon of the day.

His father was a wild life enthusiastic personality. Like father like son, Richard Lionel too followed suit.

As a lover of nature a wild life environmentalist, he became deeply interested in the aborigines of our country Veddahs.

Whenever he found time from his busy life as a Surgeon in Colombo he travelled with his daughter Christene to far-off settlements of Bintenne. As Hippocrates, Lord Buddha, Jeewaka-the Healers of the old tradition, Dr. Spittel too, believed that this profession should be humane. Humanity should be its life-blood.

This has been the very genuine case with our hero, to have been deeply interested in a much neglected, looked down upon section of humanity-the Gam Veddhas-the off shoot of Gal Veddahas, decending from the times of Yakkini Kuveni's children. Numerous are the instances where such anthropological explorations have taken place in this isle, starting from Hiun-san, Farhien and Iban Batuta.

The list of such personalities goes as follows: Henry Parker, Hugh Neville, HCP Bell, Hocart, JP Lewis, Robert Knox, Le Mesurier, Robert Ivers, HW Codrinton, Paul Wirz, Oscar Petold, Prince Peter Paul, MD Raghavan, Michael Emes, Nur Yalman, ER Leach, Brayes Rayan, RF Gombrich etc. etc.

Then we have our own Ananda Coomarasaswamy, Paul E. Peiries, Nandadeva Wijesekara, Martin Wickramasingha, Senarat Paranavitana, Gananatha Obeysekera, Austin De Silva, S.J. Thambiah, W.A. de Silva, H.W. Alakoon, R.L. Abeykoon, William Goonatilake, Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Michael Roberts etc. etc.

But these explorations are limited to a particular spot like Kataragama, Balangoda, Sirigirya or to particular topic like a ritual, custom, cult or a literary account or a scholastic research. I am not under estimating their accomplishments.

Above all RL Spittel stands foremost. Why? He was a great explorer of Humanity, Anthropology and Genealogy all rolled in one, covering a wide range of Sri Lanka's Topography in dry mixed evergreen forests, inter-monsoon forests and Savana forests. He roamed through dense jungles of Bintenna, Bokkebedda, Pollebedda, Dambana, Vatiyaya, Kotabakiniya, Kurukumbura, Henanigala and to even far off Gal-Oya valley Hamlet-Bandaraduwa. It was all practical work, meeting the Veddah Chieftan Tissahamy and his companions-Waida, Kaira, Tikiriwanniya, Handuna, Randunna, Kalukumi, Ranmenike, Neela etc. He had been thoroughly studying and enjoying their traditional dances like Kirikohara dance.

These are his own words. "These are a dying people I must research until I have recorded every one left in the island".

True to his words at the time of his death, when he was 82 years old, he was their same "Hudu Hura," affectionately addressed by them.

Veddas were always welcome by this purehearted humanitarian at his Colombo residence of "Wicharly" in Bullers road. His practical missionary was accompanied by literati in compiling several books in the field of jungle safari such as "Wild life" which went into four prints by 1951,' "Far off Things" (1930) "Savage Sanctury" (1939) "Vanished Trails" (1939), "Where The Sambur Roams" "Wild White Boy" and "Brave Island" co-authored with his daughter Christene Wilson. I am not consuming your time to analyse the contents of all his writings here.

His literary pursuits had culminated in thirty years of labour in editing "Wild Life and Nature" magazine, where he was its president. Rare are such personalities who can combine practice and literature from their starting point in career up to the ripe age. Need I emphasize that he has set a beaming light to professional ism as a medical humanitarian?

To my mind RL Spittel had been able to surpass the Sociological theories of the West, due to his thorough painstaking in his chosen role.

According to Sociologist Peter Berger, when a person encroaches another's community, he faces the cultural feelings of that community and he usually gets a "Culture shock".

In plain words such a person will become a fish out of water. But it had been plain sailing for our hero to have got accustomed and acclimatized to those dense jungle environs and its aborigines.

To walk from urban secular society or Colombo civil society to an entirely different folk-lore community, had been nothing for him. He had travelled freely, associated them freely and studied their behaviour to the fullest. His above mentioned texts on jungle safari vie for that. The Biography - "Surgeon of the Wilderness" is another authority to substantiate that.

Dr. RL Spittel's vision and mission in sharing and caring with the cultural behaviour of a neglected portion of Sri Lanka, teaches us another lesson.

Dr. RL Spittle was born to a respected well to do family in Colombo during a time of white collar jobs, under then British Ceylon. Had he continued in the post of Lecturer in Anatomy of 1910 in the Medical College, he would have easily become a Senior Don and appointed to a Chair in Medicine. But as a Medical humanitarian he had deviated from that "Great Tradition" and had ventured into "Little Tradition".

At a time when our youth coming from rural folk tries to enter into a "Cultur" Society, Dr. Spittle's revolutionary ideology the other way about, teaches them a good lesson. Physical development, technological development and free economy have advantages as well as adverse repercussions. Pollution and de-forestation are some of them.

For the past three or four decades our environment and natural vegetation have been destroyed by man. But there are a handful who follow the other way about of protecting the natural resources of the world. Recently you must have observed on a Discovery Channel how a western lady researcher had traversed the forests of Borneo-Sumathra to study the behaviour of Orang Utans.

She had to climb some trees 200 feet in height and remain still to observe their behaviour. The painstaking effort taken by the environmentalists in the world, to study their habit to the depth, is wonderful. So was our hero Dr. Spittel who roamed our jungles for more than six decades. Under these circumstances people in the calibre of Dr. Spittel can be considered as true sons of the soil. We can proudly say "Here is a man who loved the environment, its natural beauty and its habitat".

In recognition of his untiring efforts to uplift the interests of a dying specie in society, Dr. RL. Spittel was conferred with Knight of the British Empire.

The greatest lesson we can take from these champions of environment conservation is, to inculcate the habit of nature-loving in our younger generation, starting from one's childhood within the house-hold and continuing during his or her schooling upto the time of being a good, law-abiding, responsible citizen.

STONE 'N' STRING

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