Martha Quinton mentions that she was given a new drug from Germany during her pregnancy that caused her baby to be born with missing or deformed limbs, but fails to name the drug. Since the series is set in the 1950s, she is almost certainly referring to Thalidomide, developed by the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal in 1954 and later withdrawn for causing severe birth defects. Since the episode is set approximately two years after her pregnancy, this also sets the date of the events depicted here at about 1956 or slightly later.
Leonard Quinton greets his guests with the traditional Indian gesture of palms pressed together and a slight bow accompanied by the word "Namaste" which loosely translates as "I bow to the divine in you".