| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Valence, to her relatives, regarding new lights-out regulation which is ridiculous in a hospital; it is less tiring to rest in the afternoon and work late than to work through the day and finish earlier; nicknames for Dr. Jacquin; no lack of variety in the annexe; arrival of an officer both ill and drunk, brought from the Café de Lyon; he should have been at the Valentin hospital but had gone out without leave while under treatment; the doctor finds that he has pneumonia and orders dry cupping for the night; the same night a trainload of newcomers arrived at 5a.m.; heavy rain and thunderstorm, causing the drunk patient to think he was dying; M. Fayet, there to assist her, is a priest and was able to reassure him; the patient is a doctor himself and was delirious, obsessed by light, which in the storm was flickering; she watched him while reading Sherlock Holmes, though he kept waking to diagnose his own condition and predict his own death; the trainload of newcomers were not a great problem but Mme. Soureillat was astonished to find the extra case there; he was returned to the Valentin and died the next day; inspection by a General, there to check on the cleanliness of the hospital but also to comment on the cases; Jacquin was angry at having a senior officer to boss him, and Dr. Lavoiepierre was cross about the whole inspection taking up time; patients and staff were all put out by it and made cross; Jacquin is taking credit for placing her at the annexe; visit from Miss Suzanne Gatliff; departure of Lt. Chabessier, whom she was requested to accompany to Bordeaux but declined; more movements of patients; those who have gone to the Séminaire return daily for treatment, including massage; others visit and are quite at home, which is a pleasure to see; the 201 and the annexe are the favourite hospitals; Miss Bennett's treatment is unsympathetic and some of Amelia's patients return over-vigorously massaged; the men have no confidence in her; invitation to play Mme. Soureillat's good piano; Liénart also goes to listen, as he is a violinist in leisure hours and will soon be able to play again; he has developed another abcess, probably the sign of another splinter; Mme. Soureillat has promised to try to find a piano for the annexe, which will allow Amelia to practise; it will help also to keep the men out of the cafés in the longer evenings; departure of Mlle. Combe, who has shown herself to be very selfish in her illness and has never enquired after any of the patients; arrival of five bronchitis cases and three gassed officers, but they are quickly passed on to other hospitals; further rumours of the uncleanlines of the Séminaire, which she is glad to have escaped. [Letter breaks off without signature] |