concept
Volume Thirteen of the Statutes
Volume Thirteen
also: XIII том законов, Volume Thirteen of the Statutes, Свод законов, том XIII
A reference to Volume XIII of the Svod Zakonov (Digest of Laws of the Russian Empire), the volume covering statutes on public welfare, medicine, and the medical profession, which obligated physicians -- including zemstvo doctors -- to answer calls for medical aid; Kirilov cites it bitterly to concede that Abogin has the legal right to compel him, even in his grief.
Reading notes
- Enemies §29 By Volume Thirteen of the Statutes
Volume XIII of the Svod Zakonov Rossiyskoy Imperii (Digest of the Laws of the Russian Empire) contained the Medical Statutes, which among other things obliged physicians to respond to calls for aid; Kirilov invokes it with bitter irony, conceding that Abogin could legally compel him to come even now, minutes after his son's death, while making clear that no statute can compel a grieving man's actual fitness to practice.