Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/60

44 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. 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 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