I. THE USE OF CHLOROFORM 29 



sufficient authority or weight with the generals to carry out what 

 they wish (this is, of course, much their own fault), there being 

 rather a disposition in the British army to snub the doctors and 

 not give them fair-play.^ Dr. Hall seems, as far as I have seen 

 of him, a clever and straightforward man, quite the best who 

 could have been selected. In spite of his advice, we give chloro- 

 form in every operation in this regiment, with the best possible 

 results. 



I wish I had time to write more fully. — Ever your affectionate 

 son, with best love to all, W. H. Flower. 



Crimea, Wednesday, November 22, 1854. 



Dearest Mother — Again the old well-known thin envelopes 

 and the old paper ; ^ this tells a tale of happiness or at least 

 comfort to me ; at length we have got our baggage and are able 

 to change our clothes and keep ourselves a little decent and clean 

 again after more than two months of wretched privation. 



The other day (Tuesday week), while we were comfortably 

 asleep just about daylight, there was a crash and a flop of wet 

 canvas, and we woke and found ourselves in the open air, 

 exposed to a most bitter north wind, or rather hurricane and 

 sleeting snow. Our first impulse was to look at each other and 

 burst out laughing, the situation appeared so sublimely ridiculous, 

 especially as all the other tents around were one by one sharing 

 the same fate, exposing the inhabitants within in the most 

 merciless way ; but as all our few articles of furniture were being 

 scattered by the wind or spoilt by the wet, matters became 

 serious and we had to get up to see what w^as to be done, but we 

 found we could do nothing, the wind blowing so as to prevent 

 the possibility of putting up the tent, so we stowed ourselves 

 away as best we could. O'Dell and I got into a sort of hovel of 

 turf, covered over with boughs (which soon blew off), and 

 wrapped in all the blankets we could muster, lay and awaited 



1 Older army surgeons learnt nothing and objected to new methods. 



2 This was the first letter written on ordinary writing-paper since 

 September 16. The others were written on odd scraps, old envelopes, etc. 



