WORK IN THE ARMY 
cases, with a total capacity of 3,275 beds. In spite of all the diffi- 
culties which beset these institutions, they were able during the first 
nine months of their operation to take care of about 130,000 cases 
of infectious diseases registered at the isolation stations, whilst hos- 
pital cases, principally cholera and typhoid, accounted for 10,176 
registrations. Practically the same development was noted by the 
medical institutions of the committee of the southwestern front. 
During the first few months following the great offensive of General 
Brusilov in Galicia, the Zemstvo Union was given charge of all local 
hospitals abandoned by the Austrians. These numbered 39 with 
3,100 beds and splendid equipment. As part of the hospital staffs 
had remained on duty after the withdrawal of the Austrians, it was 
necessary merely to complete them, to provide the hospitals with 
medical supplies and funds, and reopen them for the benefit of the 
local population. The Zemstvo Union decided to reopen 30 of these 
hospitals with a total capacity of 2,500 beds, of which 250 were set 
aside for infectious cases. This seemed the more urgent since cholera 
and typhus were spreading rapidly in Galicia even among the 
troops. After the retreat of the Russians from Galicia most of these 
hospitals were naturally lost again, and the committee of the south- 
western front was compelled to organize medical relief exclusively 
with its own means. The committee also found it necessary to extend 
its work from the war zone to several provinces in the immediate 
rear, notably those of Podolia and Kiev. 
The medical organizations of the Union’s committees of the front 
concentrated under their control not only the work of protecting the 
health of the army against infection from without, but they also 
served the needs of the army itself. The medical undertakings de- 
scribed in the present account of the work of the field detachments 
were expanded and improved by the medical bureaus which were 
appointed by the Union’s committees of the front in J anuary, 
1915.** Assisted by a whole network of institutions of their own, the 
bureaus took care of all cases of infectious diseases whether among 
the civilian population or in the army and sent them to isolation 
hospitals. The majority of field detachments were supplied by the 
medical bureaus with special means of transport, so as to keep in- 
fectious cases in strict isolation en route from the front to the rear. 
'* They were modeled on the medical bureaus of the provincial zemstvos 
and were concerned with measures for the prevention of epideniics, 
213