fteen or
sixteen thousand volunteer nurses to whom are added about eleven
thousand auxiliaries used in accessory service (kitchen, bandages,
sterilization, etc.) and also assisting in the wards of the ill and
the wounded.

"To the hospitals there have been added since the month of August,
1914, the infirmaries and station cantines where our soldiers receive
the nourishment and hot drinks which are necessary for their long
journeys.

"At Amiens, for instance, the cantine, an annex of the station
infirmary began with the distribution of slices of bread and drinks
made by our women as the trains arrived. Then a big room used for
baggage was given to us. A dormitory was made of it for tired
soldiers, also a reading-room. At any hour French, English or Belgians
may receive a good meal--soup, one kind of meat and vegetables, coffee
or tea. Civil refugees are received there and constantly aided and
fed.

"Our nurses attend to all wants, and above everything they believe in
putting their hearts into their work administering to those who suffer
with the tenderness of a mother. In the hospital wards nothing touched
me more than to see the thousand little kindnesses which they gave to
the wounded, the distractions which they sought to procure for them
each day.

"In our great work of organization at the Bureau on Rue Francois I'er,
I have met the most beautiful devotion. Our nurses do not hesitate at
contagion, nor at bombardments, and I know some of your compatriots
(that I can never admire enough), who expose themselves to the same
dangers with hearts full of courage.

"I have visited the hospitals nearest the Front, Dunkerque, so cruelly
shelled. I have been to Alsace, to Lorraine, then to Verdun from where
I brought back the most beautiful impression of calm courage.

"Here are some details which may interest your compatriots:

"June 1916. My first stop was at Chalons, where with Mme.
Terneaux-Compans our devoted senior nurse, I visited the hospital
Corbineau, former quarters for the cavalry, very well reconstructed by
the Service de Sante, for sick soldiers; our nurses are doing service
there; generous gifts have enabled us to procure a small motor which
carries water to the three stories, and we have been able to install
baths for the typhoid patients.

"At the hospital Forgeot (for the officers) I admired the
ingeniousness with which our nurses have arranged for their wounded a
quite charming assembly-room with