30 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



abscesses, and much else. The touch of a person far 

 less sensitive than that of the wandering Princess of the 

 well-known fairy tale might prove of vital importance. 

 It will be recollected that her Princess-ship was ac- 

 knowledged by all, through her discovering a pea 

 surreptitiously inserted as a test, below the bottom 

 the pile of feather-beds on which she slept. 



To return to my duties. Accidents occurred, 

 course, at all hours of the day and night. It was 

 unpleasant to be summoned out of a warm bed to 

 attend upon these once on a cold night, but it w r as 

 not a hardship ; to be summoned twice was trying ; 

 but thrice, as sometimes happened, was more than 

 I could have endured had it frequently occurred. 

 Burns were the commonest of the accidents at night- 

 time. The sufferers were piteous to see. As a rule 

 they did not complain much of pain, but they shivered 

 from a sense of cold and were enfeebled almost to 

 prostration by the shock. There was nothing to be 

 done to them beyond cutting away all adherent 

 clothing and the like, packing them in cotton wool 

 and sending them to a ward. One particular ward 

 was allotted to that purpose. The contrast was great 

 between the neatly dressed patient of the first night 

 and the wretched creature two days after, when 

 suppuration had begun and the foul dressings had 

 to be carefully picked off and replaced by clean ones. 



Broken heads from brawls were common accidents 

 at night ; then it was my part to shave the head, using 

 the blood as lather, which makes a far better prepara- 

 tion for shaving than soap. The wounds were stitched 

 together with a three-cornered "glove needle," which 

 cuts its way through the skin. Some riots connected 



