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 486 EUSSIA ten circles, each of which is under the super- intendence of a curator, viz. : St. Petersburg, Moscow, Dorpat, Kiev, Warsaw, Kazan, Khar- kov, Wilna, Odessa, and the Caucasus. There are eight universities : at St. Petersburg, Mos- cow, Dorpat, Kiev, Warsaw, Kazan, Kharkov, and Odessa. Finland has a university of its own at Helsingfors. Dorpat is the only one which has a theological faculty. The num- ber of professors at the eight universities in 1873 was 545 ; of students, 6,697. The num- ber of lyceurns and gymnasiums was 126, of pro-gymasiums 32 ; the aggregate attendance of these institutions was 42,791. According to the report of the minister of public instruc- tion in 1872, the mkmber of popular schools was 19,658, with 761,129 pupils, of whom 625,784 were boys and 135,345 girls. The number of special schools was 206, with 41,- 553 pupils. The number of learned societies in connection with the ministry of public in- struction in 1873 was 32, of which 9 belonged to universities or similar institutions and 23 had an independent existence. The imperial academy of science at St. Petersburg, found- ed in l723-'o, ranks high among societies of this class. Several scientific establishments belong to other departments of the state; among them are institutions dependent on the ministry of the navy, a law school, polytech- nic schools, commercial academies, a consider- able number of agricultural and mining schools, and navigation schools. The study of oriental languages has been cultivated of late with spe- cial zeal, and no other university of Europe has so many active professors of Asiatic languages as that of Kazan. The number of newspapers in 1868 was 219, of which 117 were published in Russian, 30 in German, and 20 in Finnish. According to official accounts, there were in 1872, in 197 towns, 860 printing establish- ments, 366 publishers and booksellers, and 261 circulating libraries. There are few public li- braries outside of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Warsaw; but the foundation of such institu- tions has been laid in many of the provincial towns, a'nd the so-called imperial public library of St. Petersburg contains 1,100,000 volumes in all languages. The position of women in Russia, up to the time of the empress Catha- rine, was very much degraded. That sover- eign did all in her power to raise both their intellectual and social standing. Among oth- er measures was the establishment of a semi- nary for girls in St. Petersburg; the girls who entered this were not permitted to leave be- fore seven years, when their education was considered complete. The seminary was di- vided into two p.arts, one of which belonged to the nobility and the other to the middle class; the number of girls educated therein was 500. Since that time (1764) institutions for female education have been constantly in- creasing all over Russia. Female gymnasiums have been established throughout the country, the number of which was given in 1873 as 200, and that of the pupils 23,000. These institu- tions are all supported by special municipal tax, and have not only contributed to the edu- cation of Russian women, but also diminished the antipathies and prejudices arising from inequality of birth, social position, and for- tune. The pupils are admitted to the gym- nasiums without distinction of parentage, and they wear in many instances a uniform dress. Where the population is mixed, no distinction is made even in the nationality of the pupils, so that the Tartar and the Bashkir girls in the east are brought together with the Russian girls, just as the Polish are in the west. Ta- king into consideration the comparatively re- cent date at which the education of girls in Russia has been cared for, the Russian women have shown remarkable aptitude. Out of 63 female students at the university of Zurich in 1872, 54 were Russians. The question of re- ligion is not regarded in the admission of pu- pils into the schools ; all denominations have an equal right in this respect, and there are priests and parsons attached to the establish- ments to give religious instruction. Even the Jews and Mohammedans form no exception. Where the number of pupils belonging to a certain sect is not sufficient to warrant the retention of a clerical teacher, the parents are left to provide religious instruction. The penalties of death and of corporal punishment have been almost entirely abolished in Russia. The former is pronounced now only for high treason, and no criminal court of the land can inflict it ; only special high tribunals appoint- ed for exceptional cases having that power. Corporal punishment is maintained only in Siberia as a disciplinary measure among the convicts. The criminal statistics of 1860-'68 show an average of 534,000 civil, criminal, and police cases in the whole empire ; the number of persons sentenced was about 84,000, or less than 17 per cent, of the whole number brought to trial ; of these, 1,211 persons were sentenced to hard labor, 2,172 to exile in Siberia, 2,488 to transportation, 6,667 to enrolment in con- vict companies which are kept in the fortresses for heavy manual labor, 13,669 to imprison- ment, and 57,757 to smaller punishments; 81 per cent, of the whole number were cases of theft, and only 2 per cent, were cases of mur- der and homicide ; the number of women in- cluded in the 84,000 convicts was 8,800, or a little more than 10 per cent. The silver ruble is established by an imperial decree of 1839 as the legal and unalterable metallic unit of the money current in the empire. Its value is equal to 37i<Z. in English, or 73'4 cts. in Amer- ican money. A ruble is divided into 100 co- pecks. Gold pieces of 3 and 6 rubles, and a few platinum pieces of the same value, are coined ; but the main medium of circulation is paper money, which stands abroad at over 15 per cent, discount. The English inch and foot are generally used throughout Russia, except in measuring timber for the export duties. The