Chapter I: Preface

The charm of these letters, it will at once be found, depends upon their simplicity, their artlessness, their obvious candour. They present a plain, untinted account of a nurse's career, of the difficulties she has to face, and the problems she has to solve. Those who wish to know something of a nurse's life and times will find in this writing a convincing narrative, unemotional and matter-of-fact.

This is no small merit, since the record of nursing experiences is apt to be blurred by exaggeration or made nauseous by sickly romance. There is pathos enough in the sick-room and in the presence of death, but those who come in touch with it would do better to hush the knowledge in their hearts, rather than to proclaim it on the house-tops. Apart from this, the world must be a little weary of the astute sick child who lisps melodrama into the ear of the "kind nurse," as well as of the bizarre aphorisms of the dying tramp.

The faults of management and lapses of discipline which crop up incidentally in the story are now matters of the past, and are no longer to be found in either the "Children's Hospital" or the "General."

The novice who is entering the profession of Nursing will find in these letters a sensible and exact view of the prospect that lies before her. She may further glean some insight as to the qualifications of the good nurse. These qualifications are to be expressed neither by certificates nor by badges, neither by starched uniforms nor by examination results. They are happily beyond the mechanical gauge of any examiner, and above the platitudes of the official testimonial.

Of the perfect nurse it may be said that "her price is far above rubies," and that her place is high in the company of admirable women. She is versed in the elaborate ritual of her art, she has tact and sound judgment, she can give strength to the weak and confidence to the faint at heart, she has that rarest sight which can see the world through the patient's eyes, and she is possessed of those exquisite, intangible, most human sympathies which, in the fullest degree, belong alone to her sex.

FREDERICK TREVES.
_December 1911._

CONTENTS

I
PAGE
At School--Determined to be a Nurse--Royal Red Cross
instituted--Preliminary Training 1

II

Visit to Tenerife--A Storm in the Bay--The Beauties of the Island 3

III

Up the Cañadas--Voyage Home on a Cargo-boat--Call at Madeira 8

IV

First Experiences in a Hospital--The Food--Some Medical Cases--My
First "Special" Case 14

V

Moved to a Surgical Ward--In Quarantine--A Poisoned Hand--"Kathleen" 19

VI

In the Out-Patient Department--Food improved, and Heavy Work
reduced--Act as Night Sister for two nights--Am offered a
post as Staff Nurse--My first Certificate 25

VII

To South Africa for a year--Voyage out on the _Scot_--By train
from Cape Town to Kimberley 31

VIII

Life on the Diamond Fields--I meet Mr. Cecil Rhodes--The
Kimberley Exhibition 37

IX

A Visit to Cape Town--Up Table Mountain--Return to Kimberley 42

X

On Circuit in Cape Colony--A Visit to Natal--The Doctor's Fee 48

XI

East London and Port Elizabeth--Down a Diamond Mine
(Kimberley)--Return to England 54

XII

Accepted for training at a General Hospital--I begin in a Medical
Ward--A sudden death 60

XIII

On the Surgical side--A heavy "Take-in" week--Lectures on
Physiology 66

XIV

My first Typhoid Case--Diphtheria Tracheotomies--The Rescue
of the Cat--On Night Duty 71

XV

Christmas in Hospital--The Dispensing Examination--Acting
Assistant Matron--Three Weeks on Duty in an Infirmary 77

XVI

First Sister in the Front Surgery--A Bad Accident--A Dog with a
Broken Leg 83

XVII

Temporary Ward Sister--Appointed Night Sister--Interesting
Work--Join the Royal National Pension Fund for Nurses--I
spend Christmas warded as a Patient 89

XVIII

Chloroform for a Cat--I Volunteer for Plague Duty
(refused)--Appointed Ward Sister--A Fire Alarm--A Holiday
in Switzerland--A Bomb in Paris 95

XIX

I go to Egypt--Nursing at Sea in rough weather--At Helouan--Ride
out to the Pyramids--The Kasr-el-Aini 102

XX

Up the Nile by Tourist Steamer--At Luxor--"Hare and Hounds"
on Donkeys 109

XXI

War in the Soudan--Night and Day Nursing 115

XXII

Sent up to Assouan--Down the Nile on a Post Boat--A Saunter
Home across the Continent 120

XXIII

Back to my old Hospital--In a Ward for Women and
Children--Christmas in a Men's Accident Ward 126

XXIV

Scarlet Fever--At Marlborough House with R.N.P.F. Nurses 132

XXV

The Boer War--A Lucky Meeting at the War Office--Joined the
Army Nursing Service Reserve--Choosing fittings, &c., for
a Hospital of 100 beds 137

XXVI

Voyage out on the _Tantallon Castle_--Some Military Hospitals
near Cape Town--We land in Natal 143

XXVII

Inoculated against Typhoid--We begin to build our
Hospital--Increased from 100 to 200 beds--Unpacking--A Hospital
Ship at Durban 149

XXVIII

Our Food Supplies--Washing Arrangements--Snakes and other
Creatures--A Railway Accident--Our First Patients 156

XXIX

The Princess Christian Hospital Train brings us some Bad
Cases--Men from Elandslaagte--Some Officer Patients--The Bishop
of Pretoria 162

XXX

Dengue Fever amongst the Staff--First Death amongst the Officer
Patients--Mafeking relieved--Our Hospital officially
"Opened"--Colonel Galway--The Trappist Monastery 169

XXXI

A Spion Kop hero--Orderlies knocking up with Enteric--Worsted
work, &c., to amuse the Convalescents--Death of an Orderly
from Enteric--Poem by Officer Patients 175

XXXII

Some distinguished Visitors--We become a Military Hospital--New
Orderlies arrive--"Imperial Bearer Company" men--Our Major 183

XXXIII

Changes on our Staff--The Arrival of Sick Convoys--Our
Servants--The Hospital Commission--The Difficulties of Transport 189

XXXIV

I visit the Battle-fields--At Colenso--Ladysmith--Up Spion Kop--Tin
Town Hospital--On a Red Cross Ambulance 196

XXXV

The Tugela Falls--Pieter's Hill--Hart's Hill--Chieveley--Mooi
River--Maritzburg--Back at Pinetown 203

XXXVI

Prisoners from Pretoria--Our Gardens--We start Poultry Keeping 209

XXXVII

The Natal Volunteers return home--"John"--Flying Ants and
other Plagues 215

XXXVIII

The Buckjumper--The Excellence of the Boer Ponies--The Home
for Lost Dogs! 221

XXXIX

Sudden Orders for Home--Voyage with Lord Roberts on the
_Canada_--Call at Cape Town--A Funeral at Sea 228

XL

Lord and Lady Roberts visit the Hospital--Christmas at Sea--We
anchor off Cowes--Lord Roberts visits Queen Victoria at
Osborne--Sixteen days' leave--Rejoin the _Canada_ to return
to the Cape 235

XLI

The Death of Queen Victoria--Lodgers at Wynberg--The Plague
at Cape Town--Up the Coast with Boer Prisoners 242

XLII

Up Country--Under Canvas--The Sisters' Horses 249

XLIII

Our Tent Flooded--A Cow shares my Tent--Night Duty in the
Rainy Season--Afternoon Duty 256

XLIV

In Charge of Medical Tents--A Present from the Queen--Within
Sound of the Guns--"Kit Inspection"--The Horrors of
Transport in the Ambulance Waggons 263

XLV

A Sudden Collapse--The Winter Begins--Tired of the War 270

XLVI

Night Duty again--A Sick Convoy arrives in the Night--A bad
Pneumonia Case--Nearly Frozen 277

XLVII

Mentioned in Despatches--Ill with Dysentery--A Night at
Pinetown--With my Brother to Uitenhage 283

XLVIII

At Port Elizabeth--Down the Coast to Mossel Bay--We drive, _via_
George, to Oudtshoorn--Martial Law--Under escort to Prince
Albert Road--By Train to Kimberley 290

XLIX

Tales of the Siege--"Long Cecil"--Refugee Camps--A Picnic
under Arms 298

L

By Train to Cape Town--Night Sister on a Troopship--Some
Sad Cases--Home Once More 305

A NURSE'S LIFE IN WAR AND PEACE