A Family Tradition

Ida Scudder's last idea was to spend her life in India--even though it might be the Scudder family tradition. As a child in India, the daughter and granddaughter of Reformed Church medical missionaries, she saw all too much famine, poverty and disease. After a Massachusetts seminary, Ida aimed to get married and settle down in the U.S.

But, in her early 20s, Ida Scudder went back to India to help her ailing mother. One night, as she sat alone in the mission bungalow at Tindivanam, a Brahman came to the door with a tale of woe. His child wife was in labor, and the midwives had given up hope of saving her. Would Miss Scudder come to the rescue? Ida said that she was not a doctor, but that her father would be glad to help. The Brahman, shocked at the idea of violating purdah, bridled: "Your father come into my caste home and take care of my wife? She had better die!" That same night, a Moslem and another high-caste Hindu called on the same errand, got the same offer, gave the same retort. Next morning, Ida heard the tom-toms beat the death march for three Indian women who had died in labor. Did she belong in India, after all? She prayed for guidance.

Deadly Needle? The answer, as it came to Ida Scudder: "I must go home and study medicine, and come back to India." That was 58 years ago. Last week a sprightly 82, Dr. Scudder sat in her hilltop bungalow at Kodaikanal, overlooking the Vellore Christian Medical College and its hospital, and opened a stack of letters and telegrams. Her name is a famous one in India these days--a letter once reached her addressed simply, "Dr. Ida, India." But the mail was heavier than usual last week because friends around the world were congratulating her on winning the Elizabeth Blackwell Citation*"of the New York Infirmary, as one of five outstanding women doctors of 1952.

Ida Scudder took her M.D. at Cornell (1899). Then she headed back to India, fortified with a $10,000 gift from a Manhattan banker. With the money, she started a tiny clinic for women at Vellore, 75 miles from Madras. In two years she treated 5,000 patients.

In 1903, came the Black Death. Malcontents spread a rumor that Dr. Scudder's anti-plague inoculations were really a lethal device of the British government to reduce India's population. Even having the body temperature taken was supposed to prove fatal. Ida Scudder sallied forth alone to give inoculations, and to haul the sick to segregation camps. Many a family hid its infectious victims, and tried to appease Mariamma, goddess of plague, by animal sacrifices.

Soothing Hand. This experience, and many like it, convinced Ida Scudder that she would be foolish to go on alone in her fight to bring better health to South India's women. So she decided to open a medical school for girls. Skeptical males said she would be lucky to get three applicants; actually she had 151 the first year (1918), and has had to turn many away ever since. At first, the Reformed Church in America was the main backer of the Vellore school, but since Dr. Scudder agreed to make it coeducational it has the support of 40 missions. Of 242 students today, 95 are men.

Dr. Scudder's hospital has 550 beds and 60 baby cots. Last year it treated 10,680 inpatients and 45,616 outpatients. In addition, its four roadside bus clinics took care of 33,817 villagers. Widely recognized as one of the best in India, Vellore Hospital has topflight specialists from four continents and dispenses the latest wonder drugs. But to many a patient, lying scared as she awaits the anesthetist's mask, the most comforting feature is the gentle but firmly reassuring handclasp of Dr. Scudder, the woman who decided to follow family tradition.

* In honor of the first woman graduated from a U.S. medical college (Geneva Medical College, Geneva, N.Y.) in 1849.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.