| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Hôpital Auxiliaire No. 10, Hotel Bristol, Aix-le-Bains, Savoie, France, to her relatives, regarding the address; possible censorship; Aunt Amy is to write to her there and she will pass on letters to Uncle and Aunt; the journey to Chamonix involves three changes, leaving the train at Annecy to enter the neutral zone and at La Roche and St. Gervais, from which the railway is electric narrow gauge; she has been presented to the doctor and then the delegate at the hospital; she needed letters to prove that she had studied with Mme. Bianchi and that her sentiments were Francophile; the other letter was to be from M. Galland, the pastor at Grenoble last year; Uncle had a tiring journey; he raised all kinds of objections to her work at Aix but they were all dismissed and she started on Saturday; the atmosphere is kindly and everything is very interesting; she has full liberty in the massage as she is the only one who knows about it and she reports directly to the doctor; Mme. Lacuffer is kind and does not interfere; there are no fixed hours except to be there during the doctor's visit; the food is good but simple, and is abundant; description of meal times and relative positions of nurses, nuns and soldiers; description of typical meals; she is working at the moment on cases of a broken collar bone, broken foot, broken kneecap, amputated thumb-tip and half a finger, a foot with two wounds and two shell splinters, exercise for a foot and ankle to be kept moving while the knee and thigh are in plaster, a cheek cicatrix and a thigh cicatrix; the patients are different but all very nice; the plaster case is particularly active and mischievous; the cases are all convalescent and it is less tiring on one's sympathies than one would expect; most have come in from Verdun, some from the Vosges and from Champagne; the work is cheery; there is a family atmosphere; the massage interests them all as a novelty; a description of the hospital, which is lovely; she is assessing the situation to see what can be improved; she must have some sleep. |