METALLURGY. 85 



with iron. But perhaps a better idea can be formed of 

 their vastness by the mention of the number of persons 

 employed, which amounts to 30,000. I heard also 40,000, 

 and both numbers were from heads of departments ; but 

 probably the latter estimate includes carters, labourers, 

 and perhaps even women. The Demidoffs pay annually, 

 by way of rates and taxes to the Commune, 5000 ; the 

 Church, 1,500; schools, 2,500 ; poor and aged, .3000 ; 

 together with other sums, amounting in all to about 

 20,000 a year. Wages, as compared with those in 

 England, appeared low. Common workmen receive from 

 7Jd to Is a day, puddlers 3s, and those in the welding fur- 

 nace 4s, whilst good rollers receive from 3s 6d to Os. It 

 should be observed, however, that they all have houses, rent 

 free, with the piece of land they formerly occupied as serfs. 



' Before the emancipation, the riches of the Demidoffs 

 were counted in the phrase then usual in Russia as 

 amounting to 56,000 souls.* A small church, built . on 

 the crest of a hill, was pointed out as having been built 

 by the serfs in memory of their freedom ; and I was glad 

 to hear from the director, Mr Wohlstadt (by whom we 

 were courteously entertained), that since the emancipation 

 the men work better and better, knowing, I presume, 

 when serfs, that idleness would be repaid with something 

 not much worse than a beating ; whereas now they know 

 they may be discharged. 



' We slept at the club ; and in the morning, before 

 leaving, visited the Demidoff hospital, upon which, and 

 upon institutions of a similar kind, the proprietors spend 

 nearly 4000 a year. The dimensions of the rooms were 

 such as to allow three cubic sojens, or 1,200 cubic feet, of 

 air for each of the patients, of whom there were 120 at the 

 time of our visit. Many fractured and amputated limbs 

 were seen dressed with gypsum, alcohol, and camphor ; 

 but the most extraordinary thing was a machine in the 

 director's private room, in which he placed frozen human 



* That is men, or at least males ; for male children are calle,rt " souls," but female 

 children never. 



