SICK AND WOUNDED
passable in rainy weather. The result was that there was always a
certain number of hospitals to which patients either never came op
only in extraordinary circumstances, and such hospitals were gradually
 closed down. Altogether, 8312 zemstvo hospitals, mostly small
ones, were closed, for this and similar reasons, up to July 1, 1915.
In the chief towns of the province the zemstvo hospitals were able
to organize the conveyance of sick and wounded soldiers from the
railway stations in a thoroughly efficient manner. For this purpose,
street cars, automobiles, and other vehicles were quickly put to use.
In many cases owners of motor cars placed them at the disposal of
the zemstvos on their own initiative on the days when the convoys
of wounded arrived. In some of the cities the cabmen refused to accept
 payment for carrying the wounded and sick soldiers to the hospitals.
 In the district towns the situation was much less favorable,
but it was at its worst in the rural localities, where the best that
could be obtained in many cases was the ordinary, springless peasant
 cart. Yet it was precisely in these rural localities that the long
distances and poor roads made comfortable means of conveyance
imperative.
Patients were sent to hospitals by water also, but this mode of
transport was very little resorted to. Thus, during the summer of
1915, 42,500 men were conveyed by water in twenty-two provinces.
Of these, 0.93 per cent on the Vologda and Sukhona rivers, 29.18
per cent on the Volga, 4.8 per cent on the Oka, 8.69 per cent on the
Kama, 0.27 per cent on the Tsna, 2.13 per cent on the Don, 53.94
per cent on the Dnieper, and 0.06 per cent on the Black Sea, from
Kherson to Odessa. This method of transport could be utilized only
during the brief navigation season. However, the long, quiet journey
 on the water proved beneficial to the health of certain classes of
patients, in particular of those suffering from the effects of poison
gas and from other respiratory ailments, and the zemstvo committees
 were only too eager to avail themselves of these routes.
One of the greatest difficulties to be contended with in opening
such a large number of hospitals was that of finding sufficient medical
 staffs, nurses, and orderlies. The mobilizations had sent to the
front many doctors and junior medical officers of whom at best there
had never been enough. Many zemstvos had to appeal for help in
this emergency to the Central Committee in Moscow. Here, a special