122 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
Both the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns approved these recom-
mendations and appointed a mixed commission of their own repre-
sentatives and specialists on nervous diseases to put the plan into
effect.
The commission got in touch with the zemstvos and obtained con-
trol of 1,045 beds set aside by the lunatic asylums in addition to
those which they had previously put at the disposal of the Ministry
of the Interior. But for this work, again, no credits were granted to
the Zemstvo Union, under the pretext that this service had been en-
trusted entirely to the Red Cross. It was impossible, therefore, to
realize the carefully prepared plan. Nevertheless, the care of the
mentally afflicted soldiers fell mainly on the shoulders of the zem-
stvos. In addition to expanding the already existing zemstvo hos-
pitals for mental cases, new ones were opened up. Such was, among
others, the hospital opened on' August 26, 1914, by the Moscow
provincial committee of the Zemstvo Union, with a capacity of 150
beds. Very soon this hospital was compelled to perform the func-
tions of a clearing center for the entire northwestern area. In War-
saw and Vilna the Red Cross had organized two central reception
hospitals to which all mental cases from the German front were di-
rected. From these hospitals they were transferred to the lunatic
asylum of the Moscow committee of the Zemstvo Union, where they
were carefully examined and, after a period of observation, con-
veyed in specially equipped railway cars to various zemstvo asy-
lums.
Altogether, 540 patients passed through this hospital during the
first six months of the War; within the same period there passed
through all the mental institutions of Moscow about 1,300 patients,
of whom about one-half were fresh recruits under observation, as
well as army criminals and cases from the local garrison. About 650
soldiers were stricken in the war zone, and of these about five-sixths
passed through the hospital referred to above. Thence the patients,
accompanied by specially trained nurses, would be evacuated to the
zemstvo asylums of Voronezh, Ryazan, Kostroma, Kursk, Tver, and
Moscow. Officers constituted 15 per cent of all admissions. The
asylums had usually courtyards or gardens, so that the patients
were able to spend much time in the open. Under the supervision of
the nurses, the patients helped to make bandages and were occupied
