ACTIVITIES BEFORE THE WAR 41
public health station took care ‘of about 15,000 people. The pro-
vincial zemstvos maintained in the chief town of the province large
hospitals with specialists, and institutions for mental diseases. In
1912 the hospitals of the provincial zemstvos had on their rolls 300
doctors, 393 junior medical officers, and over 7,000 patients under
treatment. In the hospitals for mental diseases there were in 1913
216 physicians, 436 junior officers, and 26,300 patients. Some of the
zemstvo institutions for mental diseases (for example, the Burashev
Colony of the Tver zemstvo) enjoyed a high reputation among the
best institutions of their kind.
The zemstvo hospitals required an enormous amount of medical
supplies. As early as 1901 they had spent 4,500,000 rubles for this
purpose. To produce cheaper medical supplies, in view of this large
consumption, became a vital necessity for the zemstvos, and the re-
sult was that certain provincial zemstvos established their own ware-
houses for such supplies. The first and largest of these was that
organized by the provincial zemstvo Tver, its turnover reached 620,-
000 rubles in 1914. To reduce the price of medical supplies for the
public, the zemstvos also opened a number of pharmacies where
medicines were dispensed at low prices. In 1914 there were 173 such
pharmacies in existence. They were all able to compete successfully
with the private drug stores and compelled them to reduce prices.
During the fifteen years before the War the provincial zemstvos
were gradually introducing regular public health services. Organi-
zations for this purpose were functioning already in fourteen prov-
inces. These institutions had charge of medical statistics, sanitary
and anti-epidemic measures (organizing special forces to fight epi-
demics), and they participated in the drafting of plans for school
buildings, ete. The health boards of the provincial zemstvos sum-
moned their doctors to periodical conventions and, generally speak-
ing, gradually played the leading part in the organization of the lo-
cal public health service.
The organization of vaccination for smallpox was likewise under
the control of the zemstvos, and the result was that the epidemics
of this disease, which had previously caused enormous ravages and
loss of life, were being gradually stamped out. As a rule, the zem-
stvos obtained their smallpox vaccine from the central institutions
supplying it, but sixteen zemstvos had already established their own
laboratories, producing more than 50,000 doses of this product an-
