P. S. Z., No. 8461.— Doctor Andryushka Kharitonov gave mercuric chloride in Rhenish wine to the podyachy Yuriy Prokofiev—from which he soon died '). In the 18th century, more active government concerns about public health began. Continuing to establish the duties of regional rulers regarding the eradication of the pestilence in gubernatorial and voivode instructions, ordering them to establish quarantines in infected places ), the government generally tried to organize the medical department in the governorates: establishing pharmacies, sending doctors and midwives to the cities, and entrusting the highest supervision of public health to the governors. In most cases, during any epidemic disease, which happened so often in the 18th century, governors and voivodes were ordered to take measures against its spread. These measures consisted of the following: the governor had to write to the Senate or the Senate office about the emerging pestilence; inspect the infected place through a doctor, healer, or personally; establish strong outposts along all roads, lighting fires near them; take people out of infected houses to empty places, away from dwellings, block and barricade them with timber so that they would not disperse anywhere; to instill fear so that travelers would not violate quarantine rules, set up gallows along the main roads. If the rules were violated, the violators, except for the szlachta and nobility, were to be hanged; and the nobility and szlachta were to be kept under strong guard, and having written about them to the highest government, await a decree :). Sometimes officials from St. Petersburg were sent to take measures against the pestilence: for example, in 1718, doctors were sent from the Apothecary Prikaz to the Stary Oskol and Bilhorod provinces—to inspect the pestilence in people, to set up quarantines along the roads, and gallows 9; in 1738, when a wild disease appeared in the Bilhorod governorate, Active State Councillor Baskakov was sent from the Senate to find ways to stop it ?). The government's concern for public health was not limited to taking measures against the pestilence: it tried to establish pharmacies. In 1704, 8 pharmacies were established in Moscow, in which it was forbidden to sell grape and other non-medicinal drinks; and in the herb row, along the streets and crossroads, the sale of potions and herbs instead of medicines was prohibited *). In 1724, it was permitted to maintain free pharmacies in all governorates and provinces *). At the same time, governors were ordered to ensure that arsenic and other poisonous substances were not sold in shops and markets 5). But one can assume that the establishment of pharmacies in cities was not entirely successful: in 1768, many governors complained that there were no pharmacies in their governorates at all, and therefore, although there were doctors, they could not treat without medicines 5). While establishing pharmacies, the government also took care of doctors. Doctors were sent to cities already by Peter the Great: for example, in 1708, a doctor was sent to Novgorod 7). But in most cities, they appeared only during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, following the decree of 1737 °). Remarkable is the resistance with which city societies met this medical establishment: the decree of 1737 ordered town halls to pay doctors a salary of 12 rubles per month, in addition to a state-owned apartment, but the town halls were so reluctant to agree to maintain doctors that in 1744 the government was forced to confirm to the Nizhny Novgorod, Tambov, and Tver town halls that they must keep doctors without any excuses—and not fail [to do so]. P. S. Z., No. 3234.
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