714 



SERVIA. 



Behring. The latter, in conjunction with Kita- 

 sato, developed the principle of sero-therapy in 

 application to diphtheria and tetanus. The 

 .manufacture of the antitoxine serum has been 

 'carried on under Roux in the Pasteur Institute 

 by Behring, Aronson, and others in Germany, 

 !among the pioneers ; but it is now in full opera- 

 Jtion under medical authorities in many institu- 

 tions endowed for the purpose in different cities 

 ( of Europe and America, so that it can not be 

 long before the antidote will be as accessible and 

 familiar to the medical profession as the vaccine 

 virus or the hasmatherapeutic " bovinine." 



SERVIA, a monarchy in southeastern Eu- 

 rope. The Constitution of Jan. 3, 1889, abolished 

 the prerogative of nominating members to the 

 legislative body, which is called the Skupshtina. 

 There are 134 members, 1 to 4,500 of population, 

 elected by the direct suffrage of all male citizens 

 who have paid the annual poll tax. The reigning 

 King is Alexander I, born Aug. 14, 1876, who suc- 

 ceeded to the throne on March 9, 1889, after the 

 abdication of King Milan, his father. On April 

 13, 1893, by a coup d'etat, he abolished the re- 

 gency to which the executive power had been 

 intrusted pending his minority, and assumed all 

 the royal prerogatives. The ministry, at the be- 

 ginning of 1894, was composed as follows : Minis- 

 ter of War, Gen. S. Gruich, who assumed the pre- 

 miership after the death of Dr. L. Dakich in De- 

 cember, 1893 ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, A. Ni- 

 kolich ; Minister of Finance, Dr. M. Vuich ; Min- 

 ister of Public Works, S. Stankovich ; Minister 

 of the Interior, S. Milosavlievich : Minister of 

 Justice. P. Maximovich ; Minister of Agriculture 

 and Commerce, M. Miloshevich ; Minister of 

 Public Instruction and Worship, M. Wesnich. 



Area and Population. The area of Servia 

 is 19,050 square miles. The population in the 

 beginning of 1893 was computed to be 2,250,712, 

 of which number 1,156,408 were males and 1,094,- 

 304 females. The number of marriages in 1893 

 was 23,679 ; of births, 95,232; of deaths, 66,568; 

 excess of births, 28,664. Belgrade, the capital, 

 had 54,249 inhabitants in 1890. 



Finances. The budget for 1894 makes the 

 receipts from direct taxation 20,544,600 dinars 

 or francs ; from customs, 6,000,000 dinars ; from 

 excise, 4,082,000 dinars ; from law courts, 2,360,- 

 000 dinars; from monopolies, 15.940,000 dinars; 

 from domains, railroads, telegraphs, posts, etc., 

 3,479,000 dinars ; from state railroads, 5,500,000 

 dinars; from educational and sanitary service 

 funds, 600,000 dinars; from various other- 

 sources, 5,250,000 dinars ; total ordinary revenue, 

 63.7r)5,(K)0 dinars. The total expenditure was 

 reckoned at 63,628,868 dinars, the chief items 

 being 21,691,680 dinars for the public debt, 12,- 

 465,000 dinars for the army, and 4,885,055 dinars 

 for public works. The civil list is 1,200,000 dinars. 



The capital of the public debt on Jan. 1, 1894, 

 was 340,692.542 dinars, of which 154,485,000 

 dinars represent railroad loans. 



Commerce. The imports in 1893 were val- 

 ued at 40,923,000 dinars ami the exports at 48.- 

 91 1,000 dinars. The trade with A us! via amounted 

 to 23,756,000 dinars on the side of imports and 

 43,196,000 dinars on the export side. Of the to- 

 tal exports, 21,713,000 dinars were orchard and 

 farm products and 20,624.000 dinars animals and 

 animal produce. 



Communications. The railroads in the be- 

 ginning of 1894 had a length of 337 miles. Their 

 cost was 90,810,708 dinars. The post office in 

 1893 forwarded 9,991,000 domestic, 5,811,000 

 foreign, and 1,458,000 transit letters, newspa- 

 pers, etc. The telegraphs had in 1893 a length 

 of 1,916 miles, with 4,072 miles of wire. The 

 postal and telegraph receipts for 1893 were 

 1,067,485 dinars, and expenses 1,401,199 dinars. 

 The number of dispatches wired in 1893 was 

 923,412, of which 778,944 were paid internal and 

 109,493 international messages. 



The Army. The law of 1889 makes military 

 service obligatory for one year in the active army 

 and nine years in the reserve. The budgetary 

 strength of the army in 1893, exclusive of the 

 staffs and superior officers, was : Infantry, 358 

 officers and 7,160 men ; cavalry, 42 officers and 

 1,191 men ; artillery, 148 officers and 2,589 men ; 

 engineers, 28 officers and 999 men ; train, 2 offi- 

 cers and 65 men ; sanitary service, 2 officers and 

 108 men; total, 580 officers and 12,112 men, 

 with 2,773 horses and 206 field guns. The war 

 strength of the regular army is 105,575 men of 

 all ranks ; the total war effective, 337,323 men. 



Constitutional Crisis. The Cabinet that 

 the young King appointed after he dismissed the 

 Regents represented the Radical party, which 

 embraces the independent peasant proprietors, 

 who form 90 per cent, of the voting population. 

 This party, which is extremely democratic in its 

 theories of domestic politics and strongly pro- 

 Russian in foreign politics, opposing the Pro- 

 gressives that were favored by King Milan and 

 the Austrian associations that he cultivated un- 

 der their influence, began to clamor, after the 

 death of Dr. Dokich removed his restraining au- 

 thority, for the realization of the Radical pro- 

 gramme, which aims at cutting down the ex- 

 penses of the General Government to the mini- 

 mum and the replacement of the standing army 

 by a militia capable of defending the political 

 liberties of the people from domestic usurpers, 

 as well as from foreign foes. They demanded 

 that arms should be furnished to the militia- 

 men in their houses, and made preparations to 

 legislate to that effect. The King set himself 

 firmly against this scheme, but he could not 

 resist the demands for a sweeping reduction 

 in taxation, for this had been promised. But 

 instead of this new taxes were required, and 

 these the Radical Government would find it im- 

 possible to collect, even if they should be de- 

 creed by the Skupshtina. Ex-King Milan, to 

 whom his son appealed for counsel and help, ar- 

 rived in Belgrade on Jan. 21. 1894, and on the 

 same day Gen. Gruich placed the resignation of 

 the Cabinet in the hands of the King on the 

 ground that the presence of Milan was uncon- 

 stitutional and contrary to the compact that he 

 had made with the country upon abdicating. 

 M. Vesnich had already resigned the portfolio 

 of Public Instruction some days previous. 



The Radical press attacked* the ex-King vio- 

 lently with immunity, the Constitution granting 

 free scope to newspaper strictures, unless applied 

 to the reigning monarch. The elder Obrenovich 

 thereupon induced his son to issue a ukase re- 

 storing him to the honors of a reigning king ; 

 but this strategem proved futile because the 

 press prosecutions that were begun were thrown 





