| Description Of Item | During a brief stop at Murmansk, before finally making port at Archangel, Comrie visited the military and the Russian hospitals and went for a walk on the hills.
As their convoy passed along the coast, Comrie watched with interest the effects of the ice-breaker on the enormous floes, and thought about Richard Chancellor (whom he mis-names Sir Richard Challoner) who in 1553 sailed from England to found the settlement at Archangel to trade with Moscow.
Comrie arrived in Archangel on 27th May, to find the No. 53 stationary Hospital housed in the seminary building attached to an imposing monastery. He was also responsible for another three hospitals, and available to advise the French or Russian hospitals if required. Much of his time was spent reviewing cases among the British for discharge and return home, or dealing with outbreaks of dysentery and scarlatina among the Russians.
On his second week, Comrie took a trip up the River Dvina inspecting field hospitals, one of which was partly on board two river barges. He mentions the Russian 'felshers' who were country practitioners with a basic medical training, and draws and describes the Russian village bath-houses.
Back in Archangel by June 11th, the first social event of the week was to attend the Russian nurses' 'at home', when they drank tea, conversed in French and played polite party games. He later describes a samovar in detail. On the Saturday, by contrast, he visited the Russian Sanitary Officer's house in the evening, where they dined at midnight and did not leave until 1.30 am. Comrie here tasted his first Vodka, which he found too fiery and bitter.
Comrie was particularly interested in the scurvy cases among the prisoners in Kegostroff Island Hospital who were successfully treated with a diet of vegetables and beans. He had wired London for a camera to record these cases. It finally arrived on 13th July, and some of the photographs were reproduced in his paper on the subject.
[Source: biography written by archivist Joy Pitman, c1990; see biographical file] |