192 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
train staffs quickly accustomed themselves to the new requirements. 
Among the completely equipped hospital trains, those provided by 
the zemstvos were the simplest and cheapest; but the excellent care 
given to the patients, together with the good food and the restful 
suspended cots, found grateful appreciation by both officers and 
men, as may be seen from the vast number of letters of thanks re- 
ceived by the Union. In the instructions issued to the doctors in 
charge of the trains, attention was called to the importance of a 
proper diet for the sick and wounded irrespective of cost. Never- 
theless, during the first few months of the operation of hospital 
trains the cost of food per patient was only 38 to 42 copecks a day, 
instead of the 50 copecks allowed for in the estimates. 
Upon arrival at their destination, the zemstvo trains were im- 
mediately set to work to evacuate casualties from Warsaw, Graev, 
Suwalki, and Augustovo, during the October battles in these neigh- 
borhoods. 
Supply of Hospital Trains. 
The hospital trains required an uninterrupted supply of neces- 
saries. Three cities were finally decided upon as offering the best 
natural bases of operations, namely, Moscow, Belostok, and Brest. 
At the two last-named places administrative offices of the zemstvo 
agents were opened in railroad cars, trains were repaired, and sick 
members of the staff received treatment. Accounts were settled, 
money was received for expenses, patients were given underclothing, 
and cars and equipment were disinfected. At Moscow the hospital 
trains received a thorough overhauling and a more complete supply 
and equipment. As a rule, the trains would be sent to Moscow once 
in two months. The department took these opportunities to intro- 
duce some uniformity into the rather motley composition of the 
trains and to make good the defects in those trains which reached 
Moscow in a worse condition than the others. Profiting by experi- 
ence, the department would from time to time instal better types 
of kitchens in the fourth-class cars, and furnish them with iceboxes, 
besides providing bandaging cars of the same type as those which 
1ad been presented to the Union by the Polesie Railways. It also 
astablished disinfecting rooms, etc. In one train, by way of experi- 
ment, a bathroom and laundry were installed. The trains used to 
arrive at Moscow irregularly, and on occasion several at the same