cient clothing is rather prevalent. I
myself at one time imagined that I had been discharged from the hospital
with only the top of my pyjamas and a travelling rug. As I would carry
the travelling rug on my arm, it scarcely compensated for the lack of
other apparel. Through all these vagaries on the part of the patients
the nurses remained kind and careful as ever. This was especially
conspicuous in one case, where a patient insisted that his nurse was a
Chinese pirate, and behaved accordingly, but she gave her charge the
same excellent attention as before. At this time I began to be troubled
with the pangs of a great hunger. After subsisting for five weeks on
milk alone, my food diet began with small doses of cornflour and with
large doses of castor oil, but at last there came a chicken. I shall
never forget that first chicken, nor the nurse who brought it to me. How
I tore those bones--of the chicken, not the nurse--apart, and how I
attacked them in my fingers so that I should not leave any of the good
meat. Eventually my bed in the medical ward was required for a more
serious case than myself, and I was sufficiently well to be returned to
the private ward for a few days of convalescence. The patients here were
certainly more companionable than in the medical ward, and they suffered
from less grave complaints. They were for the most part victims of
accidents, and were all nearly well enough to leave the hospital. In the
evenings we generally had some sort of amusement among ourselves. The
_piece de resistance_ was more often than not a wrestling match between
the man with the amputated foot and the man who had undergone an
operation for sciatica. As both performers were in ordinary
circumstances compelled to use crutches, their efforts were distinctly
humorous.

It was after two months of medical treatment that I was able to leave
the British Hospital, and it was only when on the point of leaving that
I realised what we Britishers owe to this institution.

The building itself is constructed on the most approved designs, it is
fitted with every modern appliance, both medical and surgical; the
treatment is excellent, the percentage of cures remarkable--not a single
case has been lost in the medical ward during the current year; the
doctors are not only experienced, but efficient; and finally, the
nurses--but perhaps I have already dwelt with sufficient emphasis on
their virtues.

All the same, thank Heaven I return t