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.