THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO 89 



in the comfort it afforded the men on the march, but 

 chiefly in the camp and the hospital, where under its sooth- 

 ing influence the wounded were often snatched from death 

 and the sick restored to health. An amusing incident of 

 a wounded soldier's love for his pipe is noted in a lady's 

 diary kept while occupied as a nurse in a British hospital. 

 Private McCarthy while under chloroform had just had 

 one of his toes amputated by the surgeon. The wound 

 bled freely, and the surgeon, after binding it up, left strict 

 injunctions that the man was not to put his foot down. It 

 happened that the nurse was called away to another patient 

 for a few minutes, but before leaving she reminded the 

 patient of the doctor's orders about remaining still. On 

 her return, to her astonishment the man was nowhere to 

 be seen. After some searching she discovered him by 

 traces of blood on the floor, quietly seated in the yard 

 smoking his pipe. To her admonition about disobeying 

 orders, and concern for the injury he was likely to do 

 himself, he paid no heed, and continued smoking in happy 

 indifference. Better success attended her endeavour to 

 bring him to a repentant frame of mind when she told him 

 of how he had disfigured the floor with his blood. Then 

 he rose and quietly returned to his bed, saying, ' Indeed, 

 ma'am, I could not help going to have a pipe, for sure, 

 that was the nastiest stuff I ever got drunk on,' alluding 

 to the taste of the chloroform. 



Besides being a social comfort to the soldier on the 

 march and in camp, the wholesomeness of the weed has 

 long been recognised in the Army. Lord Wolseley on the 

 occasion of his rapid dash to Coomassie gave proof of his 

 belief in its prophylactic properties when on landing at 

 Cape Coast Castle he caused pipes and tobacco to be dealt 

 out to the men. George Gilham, of the 2nd Battalion, 



