CHAPTER XI

WORK IN THE ARMY

Hospital Trains: Organization.

[x the middle of August, 1914, a committee of doctors and engineers
 was working under the auspices of the Union of Zemstvos on
‘he problem of the transport of the wounded. The members of the
committee became soon convinced that it would be necessary to resort
 to the use of ordinary freight cars for the transport of wounded
men. Obviously the first thing to be done was to devise an arrangement
 that would overcome the chief defect of a freight car, namely,
the absence of springs. This led to experiments with suspended cots.
A little later it was decided that skeleton trains should be equipped
which would be able quickly to adapt freight cars and make them to
some extent possible for the transport of the sick and wounded. Fiaally,
 there was the consideration of cheapness, as well as quickness,
in view of the urgency of the needs.
A week later the system of suspended cots was already in operation.
 A trained hospital orderly could put a car in perfect condition
 within half an hour. The car would be swept clean and scrubbed
with a disinfecting solution. The next step was to erect a small iron
stove, with the chimney leading through the window of the car. To
the walls of the car there would be fastened, either with screws or
nails, wooden props, and on these would be placed beams running
across the width of the car, close to the roof. These beams were provided
 with hooks, to which were attached ropes fastened to metal
rings. Into these rings were fitted the wooden handles of what was a
combination of cot and stretcher. When the train moved, the ropes
acted as springs, rocking gently to and fro. Later on, the soldiers
referred to these improvised hospital cots as “cradles” and retained
a grateful memory of them.
As for the rest of the equipment, it was simplicity itself. The walls
were lined with felt, and small wooden tables were placed in the cars
for food and medicine. When loading, two orderlies lifted the
wounded arriving from the hospital on the same stretcher which was
to serve as his cot while in transit; this cot was then taken into the