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 gradu- 
ally 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 ac- 
cept payment for carrying the wounded and sick soldiers to the hos- 
pitals. 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 peas- 
ant 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 jour- 
ney 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 commit- 
tees 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 medi- 
cal 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