SICK AND WOUNDED
115
the sick and wounded. Bearing in mind, however, the fact that epi-
demics are the usual concomitants of war, the Zemstvo Union almost
from the beginning of its activity devoted a great deal of attention
to timely measures against a possible spread of epidemic diseases.
Particular attention was paid to the working out of a unified scheme
which would systematize and combine all private enterprise in this
domain. A vast plan of this nature was completed as early as Sep-
tember and October, 1914, by the medical council of the Zemstvo
Union.
This plan provided in the very first place for a sufficient number
of beds for contagious cases to be set up in the hospitals of the Zem-
stvo Union and, in the second place, for the establishment of a regu-
lar network of large isolation hospitals along the routes taken by the
hospital trains from the front to the clearing hospitals. These isola-
tion hospitals, in turn, were to be relieved by transferring the pa-
tients to larger isolation hospitals in the interior of the country.
The plan provided that the isolation hospitals should contain not
less than 10 per cent of the total number of beds provided by the
Zemstvo Union.” The location of the contemplated isolation hos-
pitals was carefully discussed with the medical staff of the Union of
Towns.
The plan was examined by the Central Committee of the Zemstvo
Union, approved and sent out to the provincial committees of the
zemstvos at the beginning of November, 1914. In most provinces the
number of contagious cases was not large enough to cause alarm,
and several committees (Novgorod, Vyatka, and others) even
thought that there was no necessity for a separate epidemic organi-
zation, being of opinion that the isolation wards of the zemstvo
hospitals would be adequate to meet present needs. From other com-
mittees came inquiries as to funds, and requests for appropriations.
Here and there a beginning was made to carry the plan into effect.
Lastly, in places where Turkish war-prisoners had already brought
typhus in all its forms, as in Kaluga and along the Volga, the or-
ganization of isolation hospitals was taken in hand vigorously.
By February, 1915, all the zemstvos had managed to provide a
total of 2,823 isolation beds instead of the 17,500 originally con-
templated. In the meantime, however, disquieting reports were com-
** Izvestia (Bulletin), Nos. 22-28, pp. 82-43.
