I 



MANUAL OF THE NILAQIRI DISTRICT. 299 



had been under the medical officers on the Hills, and during CHAP. XII. 

 1830, 1831, and 1832, 51 Bombay officers,^ making a total of 289, j^~^^ 

 of whom 136 had been cured, 54 improved, 25 sent to Europe, History. 

 12 died, 6 not improved, 16 transferred, and 40 remained. 

 These figures show that the results in the case of officers were 

 decidedly better than in that of the common soldiers. 



The Convalescent Depot, however, did not gain in popularity Abolition of 

 and on 4th July 1834, on the suggestion of Sir Frederick Adam, oepd?"''*'''*' 

 it was abohshed, there being at the time only 16 patients in the 

 depot, the monthly cost of which was 413 rupees exclusive of 

 the outlay on the hospital itself and repairs and commissariat 

 charges. The cost for each soldier per annum was reckoned at 

 Kupees 310. The benefits derived had fallen very short of those 

 expected when it was established, and were in no way commen- 

 surate to the cost of the depot. The medical esta,blishment was 

 reorganized, being reduced to two Assistant Surgeons at 

 Ootacamand and an Apothecary at Kotagiri, the medical charges 

 being thus reduced from 900 rupees to 570 rupees monthly. 

 The lock hospital was abolished and converted into a common, 

 hospital. The books of the soldiers^ lending libraries were 

 distributed between Trichinopoly and Cannanore. 



Whilst the settlement was beginning to lose in reputation as a Administra. 

 sanitarium, the general administration was found to have suffered ^°^ ® ®° ^^®' 

 greatly from the transfer of the greater portion of the plateau to 

 Malabar. The result of this divided authority was that neither 

 the Collector of Malabar nor Coimbatore took much interest in its 

 affairs. Meanwhile the authority of the Commandant was 

 confined to Ootacamand. The massacre in 1835 of no less than Massacre of 

 68 Kurumbas for witchcraft by the other hill tribes, the perpetra- "^'^ ^^' 

 tors of which crime were not detected, compelled the Government 

 to action. Sir Frederick Adam had now the assistance of Mr. 

 John Sullivan, who had succeeded to Council. In order to remedy 

 the defects of the existing system and afford protection '' to the 

 lives and property of all classes of the inhabitants of the hills,'' 

 the Government proposed to adopt a plan for placing the Nilagiris 

 under an authority distinct from that of the Collectors of Malabar 

 and Coimbatore, but resolved, in the meantime, to vest in the 

 Officer Commanding police authority over all the Hills, and to 

 appoint him Magistrate of the same, the revenue administration 

 continuing as heretofore. The order of Government, 1st June 

 1832, constituting Ootacamand a general military bazaar wag 

 cancelled. The Foujdari Adalat were ordered to carry the 

 magisterial arrangements into effect. This, however, the Court 



1 Under a niedical officer of the Bombay Eatablisbment. 



