218 - THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
dispatched for periods of one to two weeks, during which they vis- 
ited remote places along the front, too far for patients to leave for 
treatment. During these visits one surgeon frequently had to treat 
about eighty cases a day, but the average number of cases fluctuated 
between thirty and thirty-five a day. In addition to the six dental 
hospitals mentioned above, several dental surgeons were employed at 
zemstvo dispensaries, attending chiefly to the needs of the local 
population. After the summer retreat of 1915 all the dental organi- 
zations of the zemstvo likewise had to withdraw far to the rear. No 
sooner, however, had the troops entrenched themselves in their new 
positions than they began to send requests to the Zemstvo Union for 
the return of the dentists who had been withdrawn from the front. 
By this time each army corps was already clamoring for a special 
dental clinic, and under the auspices of the Union’s committee of 
the front a dentistry division was now organized, which set about 
forming additional dental hospitals so that on the western front 
eighteen dental field hospitals and nine clinics in the immediate rear 
were already at work by March, 1916. The total number of cases 
treated on the western front up to February, 1916, was 30,792, 
whilst the number of dentists had risen to 91 by March 1 of the 
same year. By November 1, it was found that 200 dentists and 140 
hospitals were being maintained by the Zemstvo Union on all the 
fronts. Dental treatment was administered to about 10 per cent of 
the men. 
From the preceding pages it will doubtless be clear that the medi- 
cal organizations of the Union’s committees at the front, having 
started with the protection of the army against infection by civilians 
and refugees, gradually succeeded in bringing under their own di- 
rection all medical activities undertaken by the Zemstvo Union on 
the various fronts. Compelled at one time to carry the fight against 
infectious diseases into the provinces situated near the war zone, 
these organizations opened a vast number of medical institutions, 
both of a special and auxiliary character, which increased steadily 
antil the beginning of 1916. By this time new and important tasks 
within the army itself were demanding attention, so that the medical 
organizations of the front were anxious to hand over to the local 
zemstvos the institutions which were already functioning smoothly 
in the rear, while continuing to defray their current expenses out of 
army funds.