Medical statistics of the Altai cities in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries: creation of digital sources and data analysis

The article examines the medical and sanitary condition of the cities of Altai in the Tomsk province in the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century in the context of the history of statistics and regional history. Using document analysis, source studies, historical-comparative methods, and quantitative methods, the authors analyze published gubernatorial reports with appendices, reports from the Medical Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, address calendars, trade and industrial calendars, and almanacs over the time period from 1856 to 1915. For the first time, the authors have accumulated annual statistical data on medical, health, sanitary, and veterinary affairs within the poorly studied region of Asian Russia, due to the lack of zemstvo statistics. The identification and organization of disparate materials create the possibility for the publication of statistical tables, dynamic series, visualization, and representation of the results of their analysis. The statistical tables created through the analysis of textual documents contain data on the medical infrastructure of cities, personnel, their specialization and departmental affiliation, the number and turnover of pharmacies, expenses on medical services, the number of patients and their diagnoses, violent and accidental deaths, etc. The data in the tables are grouped and combined into 10 datasets. Conclusions are drawn regarding the high informational potential of the sources and the uniqueness of the information, despite a number of issues related to the variety of types, differences in formation, completeness of the information, and territorial coverage. The article analyzes the turnover of pharmacies and concludes its direct dependence on population growth; the dynamics of almshouses (public and mining) and shelters (maternity and orphanages) are identified; the provision of doctors in the cities of Altai is characterized in comparison with the provincial city of Tomsk. The processing of medical statistics and the analysis of the results lead to the identification of a stable interdependence of this sphere with the demographic, social, and economic development of the region. However, research practice requires clarification and verification of the existing material and a reference to archival materials.

health statistics, review, report, calendar, commemorative book, dataset, urban population, Altai, Tomsk province, Siberia