statement of the facts, informs his Excellency that there is no physician in the town or village to which he (the exile) has been assigned, and asks if he cannot be allowed to resume the practice of his profession. This, apparently, is even more than a reasonable request. The petitioner is a trained and skilful physician. He is living perhaps in a district containing twenty thousand inhabitants, scattered over hundreds of square miles, and urgently in need of medical advice and help.[1] To an American it would seem as if the request of an exiled physician to be allowed to practise in such a country as this must not only be granted, but be welcomed with gratitude. Does the Minister of the Interior so treat it?
In 1883 the Medical Society of the city of Tver[2] sent a memorial to the Minister of the Interior setting forth the facts with regard to the lack of medical assistance and the urgent need of trained medical officers in Siberia, calling his Excellency's attention to the large number of physicians and medical students living in that part of the empire under sentence of banishment, and asking whether the Government would not consider favorably a suggestion that such physicians and medical students be exempted from the disabilities imposed by Section 27 of the "Rules Relating to Police Surveillance," and be allowed to practise in the provinces to which they had been banished. Nothing cer-
- ↑ In a report made by the governor-general of Eastern Siberia to the Tsar in 1881, a copy of which is in my possession, it is stated that "the number of physicians in the country is utterly insufficient. I shall not depart from the truth if I say that in the cities only is there any possibility of taking medical measures for the preservation of the health of the people. In every other part of Eastern Siberia physicians are almost wholly lacking, and the local population is left helpless in its struggle with diphtheria and other contagious diseases which desolate the country. The adoption of measures to prevent the spread of disease among cattle is out of the question. Immense numbers of cattle die every year from plague, causing the people incalculable loss." (Second report of Governor-general Anúchin to the Tsar; section entitled "The Construction and Medical Departments.")
- ↑ Tver is a city of European Russia, situated on the Nikoláievsk railroad a short distance from Moscow. It is the capital of the province of the same name.
