Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/556

540 In the annual report of the medical department of the Ministry of the Interior for 1884, the prisons and prison hospitals of Tomsk, Yeniséisk, and Irkútsk are referred to as follows:

From the reports of the medical administrations it is evident that the sanitary condition of many prisons, both in the provinces and in the territories, is extremely unsatisfactory. The majority of them are altogether too small for the number of prisoners usually contained in them. Many of them lack proper ventilation, have badly constructed retirades, or are situated on low, damp ground. The prisons in which the absence of favorable hygienic conditions is most marked are those situated in the provinces of ... Yeniséisk, Irkútsk, and Tomsk, and in the territory of the Trans-Baikál. Many prison hospitals are not provided with proper hospital supplies or appliances,and are so small that they cannot accommodate all of the sick. In many prisons, moreover, there is no special medical staff.

— Rep. of Med. Dept. for 1884, Min. of the Int., St. Petersburg, 1886.

The following are the sick-rates in a number of Siberian prisons for the year 1884, since which time they have not been reported.

Situation of Prison. Sick-rate, per cent.

Barnaül 37.1 Bíisk 37.9 Ekaterínburg 26.3 Kamishlóva 21.2 Kansk 43.1 Kuznétsk 52

Marínsk 11.9 Minusínsk 26.3 Tára 48.1 Tiukalínsk 47 Turínsk 21.7

— Rep. of Chf. Pris. Adm. for 1884, pp. 216, 217.

The following are the sick-rates in the city prisons of Tomsk and Tobólsk for the years 1883-88 inclusive, computed upon the basis of the total annual number of prisoners.

1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. Tomsk [per cent.] 20.7 23.5 42.6 35.2 10.3 8.3 Tobólsk [per cent.] 32.4 31 41.1 45.4 26.8 21.4

— Reps. of Chf. Pris. Adm. for 1886, pp. 220, 221, and Reps. for 1887 and 1888, pp. 291 and 291.

In well-conducted European and American prisons such preventible diseases as typhus and scurvy have long been virtually