SICK AND WOUNDED 
111 
great importance. We find such details regarding various groups of 
patients scattered through the reports of zemstvo hospitals. 
The statistical bureau of the medical division of the Moscow pro- 
vincial zemstvo board made a study of different groups of soldiers 
undergoing treatment in the hospitals of Moscow province and 
promptly published the results. These data were issued with reserva- 
tions, and attention was called to the fact that other groups of pa- 
tients might yield different results. Still, the publications were of 
some benefit, as they stimulated the zemstvo physicians and sur- 
geons to furnish in their reports uniform data. They also showed the 
best methods of arranging these data, and they afforded some basis 
for an organization of the work of the Zemstvo Union. 
The first study of the zemstvo statistical bureau deals with condi- 
tions at the beginning of the War and covers 4.202 cases. 
Injuries to the upper extremities [says the report] form 52.3 per 
cent of all cases studied, while injuries to the lower extremities amount 
to 28 per cent; altogether this class of injuries accounts for 80.3 per 
cent. Next follow injuries to the skull, 5.8 per cent; the thorax, 4.2 
per cent; the back, 4.8 per cent; the abdominal cavity, 1.4 per cent; the 
neck, 0.7 per cent; genital organs, 0.2 per cent. Among the injuries to 
the upper extremities the largest number (almost one-third) were found 
in the wrists and fingers, making up 81.8 per cent of the total; in juries 
to the shoulder and collarbone accounted for 8.8 per cent, and those of 
the forearm for 6.7 per cent. 
It should be noted here that in juries to the left side, both in the 
upper and lower extremities. were found to predominate consider- 
ably. 
Later (April, 1915), a similar investigation was made in 10,099 
cases. On the whole, this confirmed the results of the first inquiry. 
At the beginning of November, 1915, the Central Committee of 
the Zemstvo Union opened a development for the relief of disabled 
soldiers, which tried on broad lines to classify the fundamental 
groups of the prospective beneficiaries according to the nature of 
the relief that would be required, namely medical relief (artificial 
1% Izvestia (Bulletin), No. 11, pp- 56-57. 
® Ibid., No. 16, p. 51.