SIBERIA 517 or more than 16 per cent., died. [Rep. of Russ. Med. Dept. for 1884. Eastern Beview of St. Petersburg, No. 50, Dec. 17, 1887, p. 3. In 1885, the year of my visit to Siberia, the sick-rate in the prisons of Tomsk was more than 42 per cent. [Rep. of Russ. Pris. Adm. for 1885, Eastern Beview of St. Petersburg, No. 50, Dec. 17, 1887, p. 3.] In 1887, according to the report of the Russian Medical Department for that year, the hos- pital of the Tomsk Forwarding Prison contained 276 beds. As the fall advanced and the prison became more and more overcrowded, the num- ber of the sick, which even before that time had exceeded the capacity of the hospital, rose to 520. The beds were then taken out and the sick were laid on the floor. Still there was not room for them all, and many were left in the overcrowded cells where they spread infection among the well, and especially among the children. [Rep. of Russ. Med. Dept. for 1887, pp. 201-207. Ministry of the Interior, St. Petersburg, 1889.] Perhaps Mr. de Windt, in his " forthcoming work," after dealing suitably with me and my " allegations," will kindly explain how it happens that in prisons which he describes as " clean and well conducted " typhus fever constitutes 62 per cent, of the whole aggregate of disease, and why it is that prisoners who, he says, are " kindly treated and well cared for " un gratefully fall sick at the rate of 19 to 42 per cent., and then die at the rate of 16 per cent. When he has made this explanation, I shall be greatly obliged to him if he will point out to me the page and paragraph where, in describing the prisons he has seen, I used the words " hells upon earth," which he puts into quotation marks and seems to attribute to me. —[Daily Neivs, Nov. 13, 1890.] George Kennan. New York City, U. S. A., Nov. 30, 1890. — Pall Mall Gazette, Dec. 16, 1890. My own description of the Tomsk forwarding prison is so com- pletely sustained at every point by the Russian official reports, that it is perhaps unnecessary to append further references and quotations ; but Mr. de Windt seems disposed to make this a test case of trustworthiness, and, so far as I am concerned, I am perfectly willing to treat it as such. At the time of my visit to the prison in question there were in the city of Tomsk two newspapers — one, the Siberian Gazette, a liberal periodical, edited by the well-known Russian anthropologist and archaeologist, Mr. A. Adrianof, and the other, the Siberian Messenger, a more conservative journal, edited and published by Mr. V. Kartamishef. Both of these papers were under the strictest local censorship, and the censor was State Councilor Nathaniel Petukhof, vice-governor of the province. Such being the case, it is obvious that neither of these journals would be
