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MG 1 volume 2124 number 192a

HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.

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clashing. The stretcher-bearers, for instance, never ceased carrying people in. Voluntary helpers went to the kitchen, or wherever they could be of use. They quite lost any thought of themselves, in what they had to do. Was surprised at the way some girls behaved who had had no experience of such work. No one was in control. Went into the first ward on the right. Saw Dr. G. A. MacIntosh, of 464 Robie St. at work and helped him. A military nurse came along and gave her a hypodermic outfit and told her to continue until the morphia was exhausted. A morphia tube holds twenty-five tablets. There were not more than fifteen in this tube. An orderly was sent for more but could not get any all over town. Gave the morphia to those who were making the most outcry. Asked some of the injured if they wanted morphia, and got the answer "Give it to someone who needs it more."

Condition of the hospital. - At first, not full or crowded. Stretcher-bearers were filling up the beds. There were unlimited supplies of bedding and mattresses, but nothing else that was needed. Nothing in the operating room, only one or two pans to a ward. Had to go to the kitchen for kitchen utensils to be used in the operating rooms which had nothing. Doctors brought what they had themselves, but that was not much. The stretcher-bearers kept carrying the injured in as fast as they could. There were four rows of mattresses in the ward. In the dining-room the mattresses were laid on the floor, touching one another. "The Living and the dead together" (repeated the phrase.) The windows were being fastened up. The wards were fairly comfortable and there were plenty of lights, but it was different in the corridors. The windows were out and the doors at the end were constantly opentin [opening] and shutting. The patients suffered with cold. There were no hot-water bottles. Some hot bricks were ///