| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Chambéry, France, to her relatives, regarding weather and the effect of the geography on it; provision for a cloakroom for the nurses at the hospital; provision for ward supplies, all well maintained; practice of boiling linseed and water for soaking bandages; nothing disappears, a complete contrast with Rome; the same applies in the town; the men are given an allowance and all the rest of their money is kept in the bureau; the flat upstairs from them has its firewood in for the winter; coal and wood are now rationed; provision of fuel in the town, coming in by bullock cart; discipline of the oxen; Picquet has been operated on for continued suppuration, and an x-ray shows that the bone needs to be scraped; his cheek and eye were badly burned [apparently by the chloroform?] during the procedure; his arm is now swollen and he is dreading his first change of dressing; fewer patients coming in; Philippe and Faure have both left and massage is quieter now; Dupaux leaves soon for three weeks' mécano but his arm is now mobile; there is no need for an operation, so she feels she has been successful; Mlle. Vernaz has specifically told her that the hospital has benefited from her work; she has been asked to return next summer and has agreed; it is an exceptionally well-run hospital; Mlle. Vernaz studied nursing for fun before the war, but her father would not let her practise - he is now dead; fathers and husbands here are particularly tyrannical, and in many cases a woman has no right even to sit at the table with her husband and children, but must wait to eat until after they have finished; marriage, however, is the only escape from one's father; Amelia points out to one soldier that it is 'Maman' they call for under chloroform, not 'Papa'; she is critical of the men for assuming that men are naturally superior and that women are responsible for war marriages because of the way they dress; rebellion in the garret ward because one of the nurses was ill; childish behaviour of some of the men. [Letter breaks off without signature] |