| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Hospital de Plantieres, Metz, to her relatives, complaining of the military regime and enclosing a copy of her permission to have a half-day off on Sunday, which has to be signed by three officials, otherwise they have no leave at all, return of Mme. Poilevey, massaging Captain Arnoux, cousin of Mlle Stoufflet, visit to Mme. Remy, in charge of nervous cases, glad to leave her own ward as she is not good at following the doctor round answering questions and taking notes, two of Mme. Remy's patients had hysterical fits while she was there, there are padded cells but the cases at Metz are not chronic but under observation, they have all been sent from their regiments, Mme. Remy has the electrical department, Amelia has been given a well-lit room for the mecanotherapie with central heating and an operating table for massage, her patients are also to come from the surgical wards, the nurses' pavilion is called the Popotte, as '"Faire la popotte" means the domestic cooking of a wee dinner and is colloquial language entirely', the doctor of the new ward is Dr. Bellieze, very much aware of his good looks and possessed of a violent temper, he said she would be free to arrange her own room and work, but she has little faith in anyone there 'as one seems to be in a perpetual whirlpool of crossness', criticism of the military mind, long list of angry people she has had to deal with this week, glad to have moved from the heart and lung ward, return of Dr. Job and description, a good doctor by reputation but short tempered, if doctors had to nurse they would not lose their tempers with nurses, hospital well built and airy, the contagious diseases ward has lots of small rooms and the nervous ward has its padded cells, but otherwise all the wards are the same, there is also a section for prisoners, one of these comes for mecanotherapie with a guard with fixed bayonet, they come from the military prison and have always been well-behaved there, Mlle. Manivoire, the youngest nurse, has charge of them. |