164 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VII. No. 1207 



the cities. Thirty-two provincial hospitals 

 with 6,200 beds, and 303 district hospitals with 

 5,100 beds were turned over to the zemstvos, 

 all in. poor condition and badly mismanaged, 

 without adequate provisions for isolation or 

 care of communicable diseases. An effort was 

 begun to give medical service free to the rural 

 inhabitants, and by 1870 the zemstvos had ar- 

 ranged a system of fixed medical districts, each 

 provided with a small hospital and a qualified 

 physician. By 1890 there were 1,422 zemstvo 

 medical districts with 1,068 hospitals of 26,571 

 beds and 414 dispensaries, and the number of 

 their physicians had increased from 756 to 

 1,805, and the number of nonmedical assistants 

 from 2,749 to 6,788. The tendency has been 

 to make all hospital and dispensary treatment 

 free, the care of the sick being recognized by 

 the zemstvos as a natural duty of society 

 rather than an adt of charity. Thus the pub- 

 lic care of patients developed first and preven- 

 tive work developed as an offshoot, both being 

 now closely related. 



The province of Moscow is said to have the 

 most highly developed organization for the 

 promotion of zemstvo medicine. It supports a 

 hospital for every 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants, 

 each with from twenty to sixty beds, an aver- 

 age of two physicians, two medical assistants 

 and four sister nurses. Each of the larger hos- 

 pitals assigns a certain number of beds for 

 general use, for communicable diseases and 

 for maternity cases; each has its dispensary, 

 and all medicines, as well as medical care, are 

 given free; home visits are made only in seri- 

 ous cases. Financial aid is often given to 

 women in childbirth and to invalids unable to 

 go to the hospital. Separate provision is made 

 for mental cases. For prevention, Moscow 

 province is divided into thirteen sanitary dis- 

 tricts, with full time medical supervisors, and 

 assistants, and there is a central statistical di- 

 vision, a laboratory and a vaccine institute. 

 There is also a sanitary council for each dis- 

 trict and one for the whole province, with dis- 

 trict physicians, factory physician and others, 

 all under the control of the provincial and dis- 

 trict zemstvo assemblies, working under a sani- 

 tary code which was in force before the revo- 

 lution. 



The principal developments of Eussian pub- 

 lic health have been along medical and bac- 

 teriologic lines, in the control of the more 

 acute communicable diseases and in the field 

 of vital statistics. The statistical bureaus of 

 the central council of public health and of the 

 larger cities are better equipped with funds 

 and with highly trained specialists than our 

 own. The baoteriologie and chemical labora- 

 tories are also highly developed and in charge 

 of high grade men with leisure and inclination 

 for productive research. Sanitary engineering 

 is somewhat neglected, but when the time 

 comes its development will be fruitful. The 

 most important future development of public 

 health in Russia, as elsewhere, Winslow be- 

 lieves, must be along educational lines in 

 venereal diseases, tuberculosis and infant mor- 

 tality, and the largest single task is the last. 

 The great strategic point in the Russian health 

 situation is the remarkable development of so- 

 cial medicine along curative lines and the close 

 connection between curative and preventive 

 work. The opportunity for developing educa- 

 tional preventive work in connection with such 

 a system is practically unlimited. 



NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTION FOR THE 

 WELSH MUSEUM 



"We learn from the London Times that a 

 valuable collection of insects, shells and min- 

 erals has been presented by Lord Rhondda to 

 the ISTational Museum of Wales. The collec- 

 tion was formed by the late Mr. Robert H. F. 

 Rhondda was led to purchase the collection by 

 the result of over fifty years' work. Lord 

 Rhondda was led to purchase the collection by 

 the reports submitted by the specialists who 

 examined it. Miss Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. J. 

 Davy Dean, and the majority of the specimens 

 being exotic, the collection will supplement 

 the specimens already in the museum, which 

 are mostly British. 



The Times states that Mr. Rippon was a 

 talented artist and musician, as well as a great 

 naturalist, and both wrote and illustrated his 

 work on " Icones Omithopterorum." He de- 

 voted a great amount of time to the care of his 

 collections, and Dr. W. E. Hoyle, director of 

 the museum, states that as a consequence the 



