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     HOME RUMUDIES 
     
    
   
   
    
     Home remedies and the skills of two devoted doctors maintained the 
     
     general health of the community at a favorable level. Our area was spared 
     
     the occasional ravages of diphtheria which, in some sections of the 
     
     province reached alarming proportions. Until the discovery of a serum -- 
     
     anti-toxin,-I believe it was called -- there was little that could be done 
     
     to combat it. It was reported that deaths in several instances reached a 
     
     total of four children in a single family. 
     
    

    
     Tuberculosis -=- "consumption" as it was called -- was lamentably 
     
     common, and seemed to "run" in certain families. Here again, there was 
     
     no treatment that led to a cure, or even to a slowing down of the disease. 
     
     In /family near Riverdale, all the members remaining at home succumbed to 
     
     the plague. Only a son who had gone to the States at an early age escaped. 
     
    

    
     A long step toward the development of an anti-tuberculosis program was 
     
     taken about 1912, when Sir Charles Dalton, the pioneer Island fox rancher, 
     
     built and equipped a sanatorium at North Wiltshire. 
     
    

    
     The winter and early spring months were productive of a great deal of 
     
     sickness. Colds and bronchial disorders were common, and pneumonia not 
     
     infrequent. Most of those ailments were treated at home -- only in cases 
     
     of extreme severity was the doctor called. And only when surgery was 
     
     absolutely imperative did the hospital come into consideration. 
     
    

    
     Colds were dealt with in various ways, the most popujar of which 
     
     consisted of immersing the patient's feet in a tub of water heated toa 
     
     degree or two below the boiling point -- or so it felt to the sufferer, 
     
     who was at the same time being Subjected to copious draughts of senna tea. 
     
     For those fortunate enough to have escaped being dosed with senna tea, I 
     
     would explain that it had the foulest taste and the most nauseating odor 
     
    
   
   
    
     of any witch's brew ever. concocted. Most youngsters, given a choice,