Brocourt-en-Argonne

3 September, end of the day: The retreat continues. Maurice Genevoix is sick and consults the Major’s assistant “Le Labousse”; the consultation takes place under the porch of the church with the other sick men, including one epileptic in the middle of a fit. The doctor “gives out white powder, tablets, opium pills, dabs bare chests with iodine tincture, and cuts into blood or pus-filled blisters with a scalpel.”
Maurice Genevoix then has a restorative sleep for a few hours in the hay.