292 NATURE AND LIFE. 



tween Russia and Persia on which Russia has established 

 quarantines and stations of Cossacks, believes that an active 

 enough watchfulness to defeat the entrance of cholera on 

 that side may be exerted over that region. Yet he con- 

 fesses that it is not easy to interfere with the movements 

 of smugglers at several points. As concerns its introduc- 

 tion through the Caspian Sea, the question is less simple. 

 All vessels sailing from the Persian shore of that great lake 

 take for their point of arrival on the Russian side a certain 

 number of ports, the chief of which are Bakou, Derbent, 

 and Astrakhan. Some of these ports have lazarettos ; oth- 

 ers, as Astrakhan, have no sanitary establishments. The 

 number of officials seems to be too small also ; nowhere are 

 the examination and questioning of passengers rigorously 

 attended to. At least, this is what Proust observed. This 

 physician was urgent with the governments of Russia and 

 the Caucasus to obtain more rigorous and efficient oversight. 

 He demanded especially the establishment of vigilance 

 stations along the coast so as to prevent, in case of need, 

 the landing of vessels intending to break the prescribed 

 regulations. Nothing could be easier, since there are none 

 but Russian ships on the Caspian Sea. Proust's observa- 

 tions, moreover, came the more seasonably, because the 

 quarantine establishments, erected at an earlier period for 

 protection against the plague, are in process of alteration. 

 He engaged the attention of several high Russian function- 

 aries in these important interests ; he expressed his ideas 

 at length on these subjects before the Medical Society at 

 Tiflis, and came away with the conviction that if the plans 

 suggested by him are carried out carefully, as he hopes, 

 upon the shores of the Caspian Sea, any new introduction 

 of disease from Persia into Russia will become very difficult ; 

 but that remains to be seen in the future. 



Let us now pass over to the boundaries of Persia and 

 of Turkey in Asia. Along the whole extent of the frontier 



