12 For example, pangs of conscience, longing for the homeland, pride, constant abuse, loneliness and the various quarrels among convicts.
Dr. Vasilyev says: "Among the Gilyaks the continuous con- templation of fields of snow is tremendously influential in causing diseases of the eyes. I know through experience that a few days after continuous contemplation of snow fields blennorrheal in- flammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes can take place." Convicts are very prone to night blindness (nyctalopia). Some- times it attacks entire groups of prisoners, who can only grope in the darkness, holding on to one another.
The writer of the report comments on these cases as follows: "The distribution of convict women as cohabitants for convict settlers is of a coercive nature." To avoid being sent out to work, some convicts maim themselves by chopping off the fingers of their right hand, or in other ways. Malingerers are especially ingenious. They apply red-hot five-kopeck pieces to their flesh, purposely get frostbitten feet, use some sort of Caucasian pulverized drug which when applied to a small wound or even an abrasion produces a foul ulcer with a putrid excretion. One inserted snuff into his urethra, etc. The manzy [Chinese], who are sent here from the Primorskaya district, malinger more than any others.
The infirmary cov.ers an area of 8,57 4 square sazhens, consists of 1 1 buildings and is divided into 3 sections: (1) The adminis- trative building, which includes the drug dispensary, surgery, re- ceiving office, 4 barracks, a kitchen with the woman's section next to it, and the chapel. The entire complex is called the infirmary.
( 2) T""'o buildings for male and female syphilitics, a kitchen and guardroom. ( 3) Two buildings housing patients suffering from epidemic diseases.
Sergey Petrovich Botkin, 1832-89. Renowned clinical physi- cian. Firsr ro build an experimental medical research laboratory in Russia. Author, lecturer and medical innovaror.—TRANS.
He is rhe director of rhe medical department.
1'i Clothinf* and linen cosr r,795 rubles, 60 kopecks; f^^, 12,832 rubles, 9-4 kopecks; medicines, jurpical insuuments and apparatus, 2,309 rubles, 60 ko^xks; the commissariat, office and other ex- penses, 2,500 rubles, 16 ko^xks; the medical personnel, 8,300 rubles. Repairs were made at pri^n cC05t; the workers »'ere free. Now I invite you to make a compari^n. Zemstvo Hospital in Serpukhov, Moskovskaya was built luxuriously and
furnished according to ^^&rn scientific requircments. In 189 3 there was a daily nera.ge of 4 3 bed patients, an aver^e of 36.2 ambulatoC}' patirots ( 13.278 yearly), and the doctor op- erated daily on serious carcs, was on the alert for epidemics, maintained complicated records, etc. This, thc best hospital in the dinnct, c<»-t the ZcJNtvo I2,8o3 rubles, 17 k^^cks in 1893; insurance and building repairs a^ounted to 1,298 rubles and the workers" wajiles of 1 ,260 rubles were included in the roral. (See o/ th, Serpakhorsko,e ZemsI'ro fftg-.i-
zrtioJIs for /892-93.) Medicine is very expen.ive on S.khalin; in addition the infirmary is disinfected '"by fumij^rion with chlorine," there is no ventilation, and the soup "hich I saw pre- pared in Alexandrovsk for the patienrs was extremely salty, becauK it was made from corned Until recently, su^^^dly "due to
an inwffic.ient supply of kitchenware and diaorganization in (hc kitchen," rbe patienrs were fed from the c^^ot pri^rn kettle (Order No. 66, 1 890) .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amon Pavlovich Chekhov, outstanding nineteemh-cemury Russian shan-stary writer and world-famous dramatist, when asked for an autobiography by the editor of a maga- zine, wrote:
"You want my autobiography? Here it is. I was born in Taganrog in i86o. I graduated from the gymnasium. I got an M.D. from Moscow University. I received the Pushkin Prize. I began to write in 1879. I took a crip to Sakhalin in 1890. I took a trip to Europe, where I drank excellent wine and ate oysters. ... I sinned a litde in the drama, but moderately. My works were translated imo all languages, except foreign. . . .
'"With my colleagues, the doctors, as well as my fellow writers, I have excellent relations . ... I would love to get a pension. But it is all nonsense. \'\'rite whatever you wish . . . if you run out of facts, replace them with lyrics."
ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS
Luba and Michael Terpak, an American husband-and-wife translating team, received their training in Slavonic lan- guages at Columbia University. They have translated poetry from the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian, have wriuen anicles about travel in the USSR and on the Soviet theater, and have had a great deal of experience in simultaneous translation from the Russian and the Ukrainian.
[1] Alexander von Humboldt ( 1769-1859) at the age of sixry made a famous journey across Asiatic Russia in search of geologi- cal data. George Kennan ( 1845-1924), the American explorer, studied the Siberian prisons in 1886 and wrote his classic work Siberia and the Exile System.