98 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR ment did not proceed at an even pace, for in certain months of 1916 the monthly average mounted to nearly 300,000. Our data for the various clearing hospitals end with September, 1916. But in the table below will be found figures showing that in 1917 the army likewise continued to send back to the interior vast numbers of sick and wounded soldiers. In particular, during the first few months following the Revolution (March, April, May, 1917), we observe even a heavy excess over the average in this unfortunate stream of sick and wounded. Evacuated from the Front Area. 1017: January February March April May Officers 1,713 1,769 2,037 2,055 2.216 Non-commissioned officers and men 144,447 145,995 170,006 204,875 256,442 Total 146,160 147,764 172,043 206,930 258.658 We thus find for this period a monthly average of 186,000 pa- tients evacuated to the rear. Of those evacuated, only about 50 per cent were able to return to the front (about 90 per cent of the offi- cers). Fatal issues in the hospitals were comparatively few, as we shall see presently. We must, therefore, assume that the majority of casualties belong to the category of permanently disabled and of patients so seriously affected as to require lengthy treatment in special hospitals, or long furloughs for recuperation. The normal percentage of sick and wounded soldiers not evacu- ated to the rear and treated in the hospitals of the war zone or in the immediate vicinity has been calculated at twenty-five. This class of patients was made up either of very serious cases whose further transport might involve fatal complications, or of very light cases expected to return to the front at an early date. If we study the data supplied by the Chief Medical Inspector concerning the period from the outbreak of the War to October, 1916,” we shall find that they account for a grand total of 5,618,454 sick and wounded, of whom 3,952,875 were evacuated to the hospitals in the interior, making 70.3 per cent, while the remaining 29.7 per cent were " Trudi (Report) of the Commission for the Investigation of the Effects on Public Health of the War of 1914-1920, Moscow, 1923, pp. 162-1683.