AN INSPECTION IN THE DENTAL ROOM
(Photo, Reginald Haines)
‘Yes, mental cases,’ he said, ‘rather worry you, don’t they? Yes, yes, not nice cases for ladies. I will just go up and say a soothing word to them—poor fellows.’
The Doctor-in-Charge and Chief Surgeon looked at each other and then led the colonel upstairs.
Pte. T—— was sitting up in bed, cadaverous and morose, and behind the screen the orderlies were struggling to prevent Pte. W—— from choking himself while he recited his prayers. The colonel spoke soothingly to Pte. T——, but obtained no response. Pte. T—— only continued to glare fiercely. So he passed round the screen to see Pte. W——. Immediately, Pte. T——, stealthily and rapidly, got out of bed, and prowling after the colonel, seized him from behind! The orderlies interfered and a regular scrimmage ensued, until the doctors, who were almost helpless with laughter, seeing that the officer was being roughly used, called in further help, and a dishevelled, flustered colonel was assisted out of the room.
‘Dear me, they are indeed dangerous fellows,’ he said. ‘We had no idea they were so bad.’
He went straight back to the Horse Guards. And very promptly orders were sent for the removal of the patients to safer quarters without delay.
The work in the medical wards was perhaps less dramatic than on the surgical side, but it was not less severe. Many cases of rheumatism, gastric ulcer and cardiac disease spent weeks in the hospital, and pleurisy and empyema were constantly admitted. There were painful cases of gas poisoning and malaria, and others of mental disturbance; but pneumonia dominated the wards in numbers and in severity. They were anxious cases, occurring constantly among New Zealand and Australian men, whose distance from their homes made a further claim on the sympathies of the staff. Recovery depended largely upon the nursing, and many of them owed their lives to the devoted work of Sister Hughes and Sister Exell, who were in charge of St. Felicitas and St. Geneviève wards.