Mr. Meek's inquiries elicited that the doctor had performed certain
surgical operations in some cases of accidental injury, which the
neglect of sanitary precautions had rendered necessary. An operation for
appendicitis had resulted in death through bad nursing and failure to
carry out instructions. The women of a zemindar's household had fed his
son on solids too soon after the removal of his appendix, which act of
ignorance and disobedience had produced inflammation, agony, and death.
The doctor was regarded as his murderer, and evil looks followed him
whenever he passed that way.

"What butchery!" one had afterwards exclaimed at a council of five
called to discuss the enormity of the doctor's conduct and his growing
record of outrages upon humanity. "To extract a portion of the
intestines was madness and murder, for who can exist without intestines
as God made them?--and his effrontery to put the blame upon the women
who in the tenderness of their hearts had fed the youth on _dhal_ and
rice for the restoration of his strength--_ai Khodar_! What harm was
there ever in plain _dhal_ and rice? It was but an excuse, and now there
is Gunesh Prosad without a son to inherit his estate, and all because of
this man who is sent among us to cut up human bodies while they are yet
alive!"

"It is a great danger to us. Someone must teach this _Sarcari_ butcher
of human flesh a lesson, or where might it not end?" another had
remarked in complete sympathy.

"But," put in a third cautiously, fearful of making himself unpopular by
repeating the tale with which he was fit to burst, "didst hear of that
legend concerning the coolie of Panipara _busti_ who went forth as a
beater for the hunt, the time the Collector Sahib and others took long
spears and killed wild boars? He was gored, and lay on the grass
disembowelled, and as one dead. Quickly on hearing of the accident came
the doctor Sahib in his _hawa-ghari_, himself at the wheel, and leaping
out he knelt on the grass, and in a twinkling with strange gloves, and
water in a _gumla_[15], he washed the coolie's intestines and restored
them where they belonged, after which with a needle, even as a _darzi_
sews garments, he stitched up the wound! Those watching turned sick of
stomach, but not so the doctor Sahib. Even the Collector Sahib turned
his back and called for a glass of spirits. _Ai--Ma!_--how he did it
was a miracle, but the man is at the hospital in the Station,
recovering,