By John O'Hare

KERIKERI: Feeling crook? A tincture of rhubarb might be just what the doctor ordered…. 

At least that might have been the prescription if you were a missionary like Rev John Butler who, along with his family, lived with the threat of disease at the Kerikeri Mission Station in the early 1820s.

Today the Kerikeri Mission Station is a Tohu Whenua and is cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

One of the earliest examples of sickness experienced by the missionaries at Kerikeri was recorded in Butler’s journal. His daughter, Hannah, had become very ill in November 1822 to the point where her father was concerned for her life. 

Looking back with the medical knowledge we have now, it seems incredible that simple illnesses could have had such dire results – and also how ineffective and even bizarre some of the treatments were.

Butler was worried sick, as his journal shows: 

“The case of the child became truly distressing, being agitated in every nerve, and her speech totally gone. We were at a loss to know what medicine to administer as none ever saw a similar case….I looked on day to day with anxious thoughts, administered simple things now and then, often sighing on account of my not knowing the nature of her disorder, and how to stop its progress.” 

The eventual diagnosis? Worms. Either that or a very bad fright from a rogue bovine. 

Butler had recorded that Hannah had been very upset by a wild cow running into the yard when she was outside, and had reached a point of desperation where he was starting to believe that that was a possible cause. 

Help was on the way – sort of. Enter the missionaries’ medicine chest, and a selection of DIY medical books brought from England, which included the curiously titled tome Reece on Drugs. Butler takes up the story: 

“We began to administer calomel and rhubarb, in five grains of the former and six of the latter, with a dose of castor oil 12 hours afterwards.” 

When this failed to do the trick, Butler wheeled in the big guns. 

“Monday – child very ill. Burnt shells for lime to make lime water. In the evening could not get her to take rhubarb. Administered calomel and castor oil as before.” 

The following day saw a modest improvement, but no real cure: 

“Tuesday – the child somewhat better, but not able to speak and in continual motion; gave her a wineglass full of lime water…” 

Then – either through medical science, though more likely the grace of God – good news at last: 

“Wednesday – child a little better. Diet, barley water, gruel, chicken broth, arrowroot etc…”

By the end of the week Butler recorded that she “was able to speak so as to be understood”. Hannah, who was about five years old at the time, had beaten the odds and made a full recovery. 

It’s easy to look back and describe the missionaries’ medical practices as quackery, but it’s important to remember that these people believed themselves to be doing the very best at treating symptoms even though their diagnostic skills were out of left field – quite literally in the case of the rhubarb!  

They were working with what was considered at the time the best of medical knowledge - contained in glass bottles housed in a wooden box with an accompanying manual – a bit like treating an unknown illness with a first aid kit.

Hannah’s survival proved that a runaway cow couldn’t possibly frighten her to death – and nor could a combination of rhubarb, castor oil, calomel and home-made lime water.