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Rh ST PETERSBURG 193 chiMren is small. The distribution of the- population according to age is as follows: Umlor "i years 7'9 per cent. From 6 to 10 years .. 5-7 ,, 11 to 15 .. 8-6 From 16 to 20 years . .12- 2 per cent. 21 to 50 ..55-2 ,, Above 50 years 10'4 ,, The mortality at St Petersburg being very high (34'2 in 1883, from 297 to 38'6 in 1868-82), and the number of births only 311 per 1000, the deaths are in excess of the births by 2500 to 300t) in average years; in 1883 there were 26,320 births (1151 still-born) and 30,150 deaths. It must not be inferred, however, from these figures that the population of St Petersburg would die out if not recruited from without. The larger number of the workmen who come every year to the capital leave their families in the provinces, and the births which occur do not appear among the births of the capital, while the deaths very often do. The chief mortality is due to chest diseases, which prove fatal on the average to 9000 persons annually ; diseases of the digestive organs also prevail largely ; European and perhaps also Asiatic cholera is almost endemic, an average of 3700 deaths annually being due to this cause. Infectious diseases such as typhus (from 4280 to 5100 deaths during the last few years), diphtheria, and scarlet fever (3500 deaths) are common. Owing to a notable increase of these three infectious diseases the mortality figures for the last few years are above the average. Of 28,212 deaths nearly two-fifths (12,369) were among children under five. Another critical age seems to be that between 21 and 25. The number of marriages in 1883 was 6183 (only 7'1 per 1000 inhabit- ants) ; out of a total of 26,320 births 7977 (30 per cent.) were illegiti- mate ; and no fewer than 31 per cent, of all children, both legitimate and illegitimate, born at St Petersburg are nursed in the foundlings' home, which sends most of them to be brought up in villages. More than 100,000 persons enter the public hospitals annually. 1 An interesting feature of the Russian capital is the very high proportion of people living on their own earnings or income ("in- dependent "), as compared with those who live on the earnings or income of some one else ("dependent "). Whereas at Paris and Berlin only 34 and 50 per cent, respectively belong to the former category, the proportion is reversed at St Petersburg : only 33 per cent., 282,678 persons in all, have not their own means of support (18 per cent, of the men and 51 of the women). The proportion of employers to employed, as also the extent of their respective families, are as follows : Trade. 1 Various industries. Total. Employers 8 S5S 19 508 28 366 Their families . ( 20,857 38 153 59 010 Clerks ..! 3,597 5,581 9 178 Their families .. 4,163 7,491 11,654 Workmen ..' 37,559 195.850 233,409 Their families . 1 11,997 56 856 68 853 Independent workers 8,336 28,954 37,290 Their families 4 470 17,806 22,276 Only a few industrial establishments employ more than twenty workmen, the average being less than ten and the figure seldom falling below five. The great factories are beyond the limits of St Petersburg, which contains a busy population of artisans grouped in small workshops. The proportions of various professions to the total population are as follows : workmen, 1 in 3 ; servants, 1 in 10 ; scholars, 1 in 12 ; soldiers, 1 in 25 ; officials, 1 in 61 ; " rentiers," 1 in 76 ; female teachers, 1 in 186 ; male teachers, 1 in 291 ; policemen, 1 in 208 ; surgeons, 1 in 608 ; advocates, 1 in 1261 ; apothecaries, 1 in 1538 ; pawnbrokers, 1 in 1846 ; savants or litte- rateurs, 1 in 2121 ; lawyers, 1 in 2700. In respect of classes, 407 per cent, of the aggregate population belong to the "peasants," 20 '0 are mycshcfiane (burgesses) and artisans, 12 '3 are "nobles," 2 '4 "merchants," and 3'1 foreigners. The various religions are represented by 84 - 9 per cent. Orthodox Greeks, 9'9 Protestants, 3'3 Roman Catholics, and 1*9 various (16,826 Jews). On the whole, the Orthodox population are not great frequenters of the churches, which are far less numerous than in Moscow. St Petersburg is well provided with scientific and educational institutions, as also with libraries and museums. The intellectual life of the educated classes is vigorous, and, although 36 per cent, of the population above six years old arc unable to read, the work- men must be counted among the most intelligent classes in Russia. Notwithstanding the hardships and prosecutions it is periodically subjected to, the university exercises a pronounced influence on the life of St Petersburg. In 1882 it had eighty professors and 2165 students (968 in physics and mathematics, 776 in law). The medi- cal faculty forms a separate academy, under military jurisdiction, with about 1500 students. There are, moreover, a philological insti- tute, a technological institute, a forestry academy, an engineering academy, two theological academies (Greek and Roman Catholic), 1 Full mortality tables according to the separate diseases are given in the '(d Yearbook. Very careful researches into the sanitary conditions of the city are given i n the now suppressed Rbornik Sudebnoi Afeditsiny (Mag. of Mod. Jurisprudence) and Zdorovye (Health). an academy of arts, five military academies, a high school of law and a lyceum. Higher instruction for women is represented by a medical academy (now ordered to be closed), by a free university with 914 students in 1882, the standards of instruction and exami- nation in both being equal to those of the other universities, and by higher pedagogical courses. For secondary education there are twelve classical gymnasia for boys and nine for girls, with foul- private gymnasia and three progymnasia, eight "real schools," five seminaries for teachers, ten military schools, three German gym- nasia, and five other schools. For primary education there are 156 municipality schools (7225 scholars in 1883), 16 schools of the zmnstvo, and about 450 others maintained either by public institu- tions or by private persons ; 19,400 boys and girls received instruc- tion in 431 public schools in 1884, the aggregate cost being 24,765 ; about 70 institutions for receiving the younger children of the poorer classes and several private "kindergartens" must be added to the above. The scientific institutions are numerous. The academy of sciences, opened in 1726, has rendered immense service in the exploration of Russia. 2 The oft-repeated reproach that it keeps its doors shut to Russian savants, while opening them too widely to German ones, is not without foundation ; but the services rendered to science by the Germans in connexion with the academy are undoubtedly very great. The Pxilkova astronomical observa- tory, the chief physical (meteorological) observatory (with branches throughout Russia and Siberia), the astronomical observatory at Vilna, the astronomical and magnetical observatory at Peking, and the botanical garden, 3 all attached to the academy of sciences, issue every year publications of the highest scientific value. The Society of Naturalists and the Physical and Chemical Society, though less than twenty years old, have already issued most valuable publica- tions, which are not so well known abroad as they deserve to be. The still more recently founded geological committee is ably push- ing forward the geological survey of the country ; the Mineralogical Society was founded in 1817. The Geographical Society, with four sections (923 members) and branch societies for West and East Siberia, Caucasus, Orenburg, the north-western and south-western provinces of European Russia, all liberally aided by the state, is well known for its valuable work, as is also the Entomological Society. There are four medical societies, and an Archreological Society (since 1846), an Historical Society, an Economical Society (120 years old), Gardening, Forestry, Technical, Navigation Socie- ties, and others, as also several scientific committees appointed at the ministries. The scientific work of the hydrographical depart- ment and of the general staff is well known. On the whole, there is access to all these societies, as well as to their museums and libraries. At St Petersburg classical music always finds first-rate performers and attentive hearers. The conservatory of music gives a superior musical instruction. The Musical Society is also worthy of notice. Art, on the other hand, has not freed itself from the old scholastic methods at the academy. Several independent artistic societies seek to remedy this drawback, and are the true cradle of the Russian genre painters. The imperial public library, open free for 347 days in the year, though far behind the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale in the number of volumes, nevertheless contains rich collections of books and MSS. Its first nucleus was the library of the Polish republic seized in 1795 (262,640 volumes and 24,574 prints), collected mostly by Archbishop Zalusski of Kieff. It has been much enriched since then by purchases and donations, and now (1886) contains more than 1,000,000 volumes, a remarkable collection of 50,000 " Rossica " (everything published in Russia), and 40,000 MSS., some of which are veiy valuable and unique. The library of the academy of sciences, also open every day, contains more than 500,000 volumes, 13,000 MSS., rich collections of works on Oriental languages, and valuable collections of periodical publica- tions from scientific societies throughout the world. The library of the council of state is also open to the public ; while several libraries of scientific societies and departments of the ministries, very rich in their special branches, are easily accessible. Those of the hydro- graphical department, the academy of art, the musical conserva- tory, the university (150,000 vols. ), are especially valuable to the student. Nearly thirty private circulating libraries, which have to contend with many restrictions, supply the students for a small fee with everything printed in Russia, if not prohibited by Govern- ment. The museums of the Russian capital have a marked place among those of Europe. That of the academy of science, with more than 100,000 systematically classified natural history speci- mens ; that of the Mineralogical Society, giving a full picture of the geology of Russia ; the Asiatic museum, with its rich collections of Asiatic MSS. and coins ; and several others are of great scientific value. The Hermitage Art Gallery contains a first-rate collection of the Flemish school, some pictures of the Russian school (the re- mainder being at the academy of arts), some good specimens of the 2 Sukhomlinoff, "History of the Academy of Sciences," in its Memoirs (Russian), vol. xxvi., 187(5, and the same year in its tttnwires in German. 3 Trantvetter, "History of the Botanical Garden," in Memoirs of the same, 1S73, vol. ii. XXI. 25