132 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
dea of opening its own workshop for artificial limbs in 1914, that 1s 
to say at a time when the workshop of the Empress Marie Institute 
at Petrograd was the only one in the whole of Russia. 
At first such intentions were met with obstacles of a purely formal 
-haracter, and it was only on February 20, 1915, that it was found 
possible to open a small workshop in Kharkov. This was to be 
capable of supplying about one hundred artificial limbs a month, 
which was about the same number as that turned out by the Em- 
press Marie Institute. The initial expense was calculated at 13,500 
rubles, and the monthly cost at 6,740 rubles. The workshop was 
maintained with the funds of the Union of Zemstvos. To find skilled 
workmen proved somewhat difficult, and men had to be specially 
irained to undertake the work. By September 1, 1915, fifty men 
were already employed and the plant was working at full capacity. 
During the first two and a half months 464 artificial limbs were 
oroduced and 188 invalids were fitted. On September 22 of the same 
gear a temporary home for the disabled was opened in connection 
with this workshop, which gave shelter to 137 men in the course of 
‘he two months that they had to wait for the limbs to be ready. In 
Saratov a workshop for artificial limbs was opened in May, 1916, 
with funds supplied by the Central Committee of the Zemstvo Un- 
ion. The Saratov Committee of the Union was able to come to an 
agreement with the local Committee of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth. 
The two institutions organized a medical commission of professors 
»f the local university and zemstvo doctors, with the participation 
of military authorities. It decided on the type of artificial limbs to 
be used, gave orders for their manufacture, and received them from 
the workshop. The limbs thus obtained were paid for by the military 
authorities. In Moscow province the yearly requirement in artificial 
imbs at zemstvo hospitals was estimated to be six hundred. It was 
proposed to manufacture this number at the expense of the zemstvo 
‘n three different localities in the province. After December, 1915, a 
workshop was in operation at Rostov-on-Don, which was maintained 
at the expense of the Union. All these workshops of the Union were 
Jesigned to meet purely local requirements, and it was not proposed 
to extend the organization to the whole country. 
A similarly local and casual character may be observed in the 
vork of those institutions for the disabled of which mention is made