15/11/1916 Bonsecours
My dearest Mother
I didn’t get my usual letter off on Sunday, as I was free in the morning and had a rose bed to trench and manure. In the afternoon I was guardi ( that meant I was looking after other people’s wards and was constantly running backwards and forwards giving medicines, Dakin treatment (a chlorine preparation injected 2 hourly into the wounds) etc. I meant to write to you in between but couldn’t find a moment.
To-day is La Fete du Roi (Abert’s Birthday) and so the men have a holiday. I have been very busy all morning collecting data and material for Dr Stouffs bi-annual report and that is some job I can tell you (being the trusted servant of one’s master has its drawbacks sometimes). This afternoon I have been planting rose trees with Tim in the bed I dug on Sunday: it makes the garden look awfully swishy!! Then we planted some belated bulbs: it is sickening how we’ve been delayed with our bulbs owing to the ground having been soaked! Yesterday the frost came and to-day it is awfully cold too!
My work grows apace: we are going to do x-ray treatment as well as x-ray photos now: it will be intensely interesting but very delicate work. There is always something new cropping up: new discoveries are being made every day and it behoves us to experiment with as many as we can.
A few days ago we had an American Doctor round and as he couldn’t speak French and he arrived at a moment when Dr Stouffs was very busy, he was handed over to me. Well I think he plied me with questions for nearly an hour: he was not a great believer in electrotherapy but as he had only seen it used for diseases and lesions of the central nervous system (brain and spinal chord) where it does not show at its best he was not an unbiased observer. He was dreadfully common and didn’t take my fancy as a medico at all.
Do tell me about Vear, his stay in France has indeed been short. I hope his knee is not a very bad business. I wish we could have him here to treat.
Tim and I are going out to play bridge with Miss Hunter tomorrow night.
I must dry up now: has Molly left you yet? I hope Father has sent me some money: my imprisonment at Southampton has quite cleaned me out.
Best love to you both
From your loving Dorothy.
About Alford 