104 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR department for medical personnel had been organized within a few months from the outbreak of the War, and training classes had been opened for the lower hospital staffs and attendants. But even those persons with medical training who were not mobilized preferred to seek service in the front organizations of the Zemstvo Union, so that serious difficulty was found in inducing them to work in the hos- pitals in the rear. Nevertheless, the Union succeeded in enlisting more than 37,000 men and women for the hospitals in the interior as follows: 5,000 physicians and surgeons, 6,600 junior medical officers, '7,900 nurses, and 17,900 attendants and various employees. On an average, each doctor had to attend to 89.1 cases and each junior officer to 29. Under the original plans, 87 per cent of all zemstvo hospital beds were to be devoted to major surgical cases, 33 per cent to minor surgical cases and the sick, and the remaining 80 per cent to the so-called “patronage” cases, that is convalescents and light cases requiring rest and richer diet under doctors’ orders. Actually, how- ever, these plans were never fully realized. Prince Oldenburg looked askance upon the institution of “patronage” and ordered this medi- cal service to be discontinued. In its place, the so-called “convales- cent battalions,” were established. In these battalions the primary consideration was not doctors’ orders, rest, and richer food, but rather discipline and encouragement of the patients to return to the front. As a result of these arrangements and of the experience gained during the first few months of the War, the zemstvo hospitals ac- tually had only 23.1 per cent of their bed capacity devoted to major surgical cases on July 1, 1915. Even if we were to add to this num- ber the beds not accounted for in the reports of the hospitals, bear- ing in mind that it is always possible to accommodate serious cases in beds intended for minor surgery, it would give only 35.6 per cent of the total for beds devoted to major surgery. For minor sur- gery and for the sick, 53.7 per cent of the total bed capacity was set aside, leaving for “patronage” cases not more than 5 per cent, 3.6 per cent for contagious diseases, and 2.1 per cent for special cases, such as mental and nervous disorders, tuberculosis, balneo- logical cases, etc. The degree of utilization varied according to the location and