Legal regulation of the supply of medicines to the army and the public in the Russian Empire in the fi rst half of the 19th century

Abstract

The authors of this article have attempted to identify the main trends in the policy of the government of the Russian Empire regarding the supply of medicines to the army and the public in the first half of the nineteenth century. An analysis of resolutions and ukases of the first half of the nineteenth century shows that, with the advent of the political concepts of medical police and cameralism, the Russian state took responsibility for its citizens’ lives and health. This meant providing them with health care, including formulated medicines and imported medicinal plants. The main trends in legal policy regarding health care in this period were the expansion of the network of apothecaries, the professionalisation of their activities, the establishment of state control over the prices and quality of medicinal materials, and the prioritisation of potential patients depending on their benefits to the state. Public officials were guaranteed the opportunity to receive health care from state doctors and medicines from state apothecaries by law. The rest of the population paid for their treatment and medicines themselves. Representatives of the military authorities, who not only defended the Russian state against internal and external enemies, but also took part in the fight against epidemics, were in the most privileged position. They were treated with medicines from a reserve apothecary. Large-scale and expensive purchases for this were more than once the object of conflict and disputes among military administrators.