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car over a gangway and two other orderlies helped to fit the handles
of the cot in the proper rings attached to the ropes. These cots were
about two feet in width, which made it possible to accommodate
twelve in a car, while leaving a passage seven feet wide across the
car from one door to another. The cots were placed in two tiers,
three in one row, that is, six on each side of the main passage. A
freight train consisting of thirty-three cars was calculated to hold
896 cases. In the middle of the train there was a set of cars comprising
 the kitchen, two supply cars, and one third-class car for the
staff. The cost of a train completely equipped was calculated at
14,000 rubles, making 35 rubles per cot. The staff was to consist of
two doctors, three junior medical officers, six trained nurses, a superintendent,
 thirty-four orderlies, two cooks, and the kitchen assistant.
 The total salaries of the staff were reckoned at 1,685 rubles
per month. Each car was to have its own orderly, and one of them
was to act as a senior in charge of the others. Each nurse had five
to six cars to look after, while each junior medical officer was to
attend to ten or eleven cars. As for the doctors, the two divided the
train between themselves. Particular attention was to be paid to the
feeding of the sick and wounded. The food allowance of the staff
was computed on the following basis: the higher staff, numbering
twelve, at one ruble a day, and the lower, numbering thirty-seven,
at 50 copecks, which made a total of 915 rubles per month. The cost
of maintenance of the sick and wounded, calculated at the rate of
50 copecks, on a basis of fifteen days a month per patient, was
estimated at 2,970 rubles. All other expenditure, such as that for
fuel, light, management, medical supplies, dressing material, equipment,
 etc., was put at 1,430 rubles. The total cost of maintaining a
hospital train therefore amounted to 7.000 rubles a month, or 17
to 18 rubles per cot.
The findings of the committee were reported to the Central Committee
 of the Union, estimates were scrutinized, and experiments
were carried out with the installation of cots in fast trains between
Moscow and Podolsk. The Central Committee then approved the
recommendations, proceeded to organize a special hospital train department
 and gave orders to form at once ten such trains for evacuations
 in the interior of the country. Workshops were opened at Moscow
 to supply the necessary equipment, and the department next

WORK IN THE ARMY