[The author didn't address the letter formally, but it was written to Abby Turner.]Thursday night.
We thought yesterday the backbone of the scorching weather of the past two weeks might be breaking but the bones evidently mended during the night and it's still warm. Today we had a post so I had to don a coat to cover me all up. It was to be a peritonitis case and they are rather dirty bacteriologically, anyway. To look at it was a pretty autopsy. The pus began to show just as soon as they got through the muscles and on lifting up the omentum every depression through the abdomen was bathed in a thin slightly greenish fluid, extending from the lowest part of the pelvis way up to the diaphragm. Fortunately the body was fresh enough to be warm. Pedro, however, our toughtest member of the staff departed, white in the gills. Slides made from the pus show many streptococci.
I am enclosing for inspection two pictures to show all of us except the chief and Daddy. The former was away the day they were taken and Daddy wouldn't come out. In the group you will notice my usual squint and the fact that I talk a great deal. Pedro occupies the foreground supported by Dr. Haley, who spent 6 years teaching school where the pupils "tote guns" more naturally than wearing shoes, and by Miss Newell. The second picture adds Miss Johnson, Dr. Graves' secretary. I had another group showing the five of us but sent it home. The windows behind us - the basement floor - are those on one side of the laboratory.
I have a new job which I don't know enough to do - to plot surgicals. All the old stuff taken out comes down to us with a history and we have to get it ready for sections. Terrible to write descriptions and then have to pot them in Zenker, Formaldehyde, Alcohol & Formaldehyde & maybe in Kaiserling. Dr. Graves is strong on "system" and I havea fierce time getting on and off the cards everything that should be there. I am rather hoping that the end of Dr. Haley's vacation may relieve me of this present piece of work for I really don't know enough to do it well. Everybody else has a definitive job, Miss Newell does the Wassermanns and gonococcus smears, Mrs. Lucia, our new little girl, cuts all the sections, Miss Johnson does all the office work, but poor I makes media, washes slides, does the bacteriology, helps at posts, and now cares for surgical. Regular Jack of all trades! Yesterday in addition to other things I was invited to read French Pathology for a while. My French is very weak normally and worse pathologically. But I have a pretty good time and there are always interesting things on hand such as a woman who drank carbolic acid and got badly burned internally and externally.
I must go to bed. Tomorrow I have agar and vaccines and surgicals and post bacteriology to look out for and I'd like to go down to the bank - but I can't remember where the bank is that contains my last month's salary.
I trust you'll not entertain long the idea of going tramping alone. 'Taint safe - either for you or your mother. But I suppose you'll have to do what seems best to you. I don't know any more and Eva suggests that I don't try to dictate other peoples lives but let them do as they think they'd better. Dr. Graves has crushed all hope we had of getting to Chicago in September but we are now setting our hearts on Thanksgiving vacation. He suggested maybe we could get away next Decoration Day which was so near that we of course felt all excited about the trip. He is a funny man, he's so serious. He tries to teach Pedro just how to do everything and talks along in great detail. Pedro looks bored to death and after the chief goes out remarks sadly, "He does that all day." I don't believe Dr. Graves knows how to get on with men that work for him very well. It may be that women, who mind tiny details less, will be better for him. Miss Newell takes advantage of her year or two of advanced age to give him a surprise occasionally and he always gets caught. He's so big and slow and she is so small and quick that it's as good as a circus, but he usually comes around to our way of seeing things if we have any sense on our side, and he's nice to ask things of and to show things to.
Was I going to bed? What is Dr. Pike doing in So H-? Is it you or Anna Yates he has gone to see? Please remember me to him if he hasn't gone home. Just a week from today and you turn your people out? What did one of the Sunday papers mean about the students doing blood tests? It sounds like the newspaper articles that crop out here occasionally in connection with jail cases, where the jail doctor is quoted as about to examine blood from the prisoner. Since Miss Newell does all that work for the jail such reports always amuse me.
It is a bit cooler tonight but not noticeably so. Do you know the greatest amount one can perspire in 24 hours? I don't, but I'll bet I beat it. Fortunately our clothes dry at night and our tub is good. Yes, our quarters are much more attractive since I've gotten acquainted and have a desk. That's the only thing I need to make me feel at home, though I'll still enjoy a wardrobe. But those first days amused me most to pieces. At present I'm in my room very little for we sit out on Miss Newell's porch if we are sufficiently clothed and if not we sit in her room where a full length open door helps in giving a breeze. She's very companionable and we play around together easily which is pleasant.
This is finally good night and much love to you, dearie.
Will you please send me back the picture. I haven't any other copies. [Evidently Abby did do this, because the photograph mentioned is no longer with the letter.]