| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Chambéry, to her relatives, regarding clocks going back; leaving apartment for a week in a hotel before their departure; Aunt's good health, though she has been busy; Mme. Pelaz, the landlady, has offered them the house for next summer, too; the porters have been pleasant and the neighbours friendly without being obtrusive; bread and sugar are now both rationed, which is fair; in Savoy the food is plenty, but eggs and milk have gone up; there should be no such increase for the women locally have laboured heroically and the crops are good; the women are worn out and the men do not seem to understand, though she has tried to explain it to her patients; local fruit and vegetables are not dear, but grain, forage, foreign production or fuel is costly; there is a probability of 2,000 Americans being stationed there soon and the French regiments are being moved to make way for them; sometimes the soldiers feel the newcomers are prolonging the war; Oger is to return to the front, cured again - he has had wounds and typhoid before; treatments to try to avoid operations for appendicitis; appendicitis is very common in the younger men; barrack and trench food is not good; from what she has seen, she would divide ages into three classes for warfare: 19 - 25 is best for flying, 25 - 35 for general strength and ability to carry 100 kilos of kit; 35 - 40 for endurance of weather conditions; no military duties are adapted to the individual; men have been forced to march 50 kilometres to reinforce the troops at Verdun and then made to fight the next day when they were not fit for it; the British seem better looked after than the French as regards fatigue; a Y.M.C.A. would be useful here for the soldiers; the Abbé says that 1,400,000 French have been killed; Mlle. Vernaz has been thinking of replacing her with M. Bugnard, the masseur who preceded her - he is an artist, so has some knowledge of anatomy, but no subtlety, and he is angry with the men when they scream; he feels he has no need of Amelia's training or advice; looking at Amelia's list of patients, Mlle. Vernaz has decided that it will do less damage to stop massage completely until she returns; the men are looking forward to her return, and offered to sign a petition to the King of England to have her sent back to Chambéry; new patients are hoping she will be back soon as they have seen what her work can do. |