In Dessau, one French prisoner in October and two in November contracted the disease, which in January appeared throughout the city and became epidemic. In the garrison, which consisted of 1,228 men, there were ten cases of the disease, none of which terminated fatally.

Hamburg,^[272] after the by no means mild epidemic that raged there in the year 1864 (19·7 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants) suffered very little from the disease in the following years; in 1868 there were five deaths reported, and in 1869 the number increased to twenty. After the Franco-German War an epidemic of small-pox raged in Hamburg, which was more extensive and more furious than almost any other epidemic that Germany had ever experienced. In the years 1870–2 no less than 4,053 persons succumbed to small-pox in Hamburg. Among the French prisoners there were twenty-two cases of the disease and one death, and among the German troops there were twelve cases and no deaths. The disease first made its appearance in the summer of 1870, when there were a few cases in the city; but in October they began to increase in number, and by the first of the year the disease was spreading rapidly. The number of deaths in Hamburg was:

The figures for 1870 and 1871 include the city and suburbs, and those for 1872 the entire State—a fact, however, which makes but little difference. This severe epidemic gave rise to the passing of a law on January 30, 1872, rendering vaccination compulsory; the enforcement of this law was greatly facilitated in the following years by the fact that everybody very soon came to recognize the superiority of animal lymph.

In Schleswig-Holstein the city of Altona, which bordered on Hamburg, was very severely attacked by small-pox. No detailed information regarding the epidemic there is available; the population of the city in the year 1871 was 83,177, and in the same year 965 persons (116·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox; in the following year there were only two deaths. In the year 1871 only three districts were more severely attacked by the disease than Altona—Rendsburg, Steinburg, and Stollmarn. The city of Rendsburg was an important seat of the disease, which broke out there on November 16 among the prisoners, shortly after their arrival; the epidemic, however, was rather mild, since of 2,590 prisoners only forty-four contracted the disease and only three died. The garrison, which averaged 2,876 men, was somewhat more severely attacked; 109 men contracted the disease (37·9 per 1,000), and four succumbed to it. The epidemic became unusually widespread in the city; 114 inhabitants (98·8 per 10,000) succumbed to small-pox there in the year 1871.

Of 5,000 prisoners confined in Lockstedt, 47 contracted small-pox, the first in October, and the rest in February; only a few men in the German garrison were attacked by the disease. From Lockstedt the disease spread to the surrounding country, including Itzehoe, where it caused 102 deaths (110·6 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871. From there small-pox spread in all directions; it was conveyed to Stollmarn chiefly by working-men from Hamburg and Altona who lived in the country.

In the city of Lübeck, the population of which in the year 1871 was 52,158, the following number of people, according to the report of the local Bureau of Statistics, contracted and succumbed to small-pox:

Judging from this table, the city was not very severely attacked by the disease.

In the province of Hanover, small-pox did not become very widespread in the years 1871 and 1872, thanks to the introduction of compulsory vaccination; this is evident from one of the tables reproduced above. In the year 1871 the districts of Osterode and Harburg had the highest figures, 32·4 and 18·7 deaths respectively per 10,000 inhabitants, and in the following year Osterode had 47·4 and Einbeck was second with 24·6. In the city of Hanover the cases of the disease in the garrison were few and far between; the first cases among the prisoners were reported in August; their maximum number was 2,299, and fifty-six of them contracted the disease and three died. In the city seventy-one persons succumbed to the disease in the year 1871, and eighty-nine persons in the year 1872 (8·1 and 10·2, respectively, per 10,000 inhabitants). In Hildesheim, cases of the disease, which had been brought there from France, were reported in March 1871; seven soldiers in the garrison were taken sick. In Göttingen (Governmental District of Hildesheim) persons who had contracted the disease in France were taken to the lazaret in March 1871; whether or not this was responsible for the communication of the disease to the civil inhabitants, among whom a severe epidemic had never before raged, cannot be ascertained. At Einbeck (Governmental District of Hildesheim) several small-pox convalescents belonging to the field-army arrived in February 1871. In Osnabrück a soldier belonging to the field-army contracted the disease in December. In Papenburg (Governmental District of Osnabrück) the dépôt where the prisoners were confined was very severely attacked; of 993 prisoners, sixty-three contracted the disease and two died. In Lingen (Governmental District of Osnabrück) there was a rather large number of Frenchmen suffering from small-pox—fifty-three, all told, of whom three died. In Stade thirty-two out of 2,284 prisoners contracted the disease in January and February, and five of them died.

In Bremen the epidemic of small-pox did not become very widespread. According to a report issued by the local Bureau of Statistics, there were only twenty-six cases of the disease there in the year 1870 and no deaths; in the following years the number of deaths was as follows:^[273]

In the case of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg the number of deaths due to small-pox is unknown. In the city of Oldenburg three French prisoners (two in October and one in November) contracted small-pox, and one case of the disease was reported in the garrison in March. Regarding the appearance of small-pox among the civil inhabitants no information is available.

The governmental districts of Münster and Minden (Province of Westphalia) were only moderately afflicted by small-pox in the years 1870–2. According to Guttstadt, a few cases of the disease were reported in the city of Münster in May 1869, and these were followed by seven more in July 1870. After that no cases were reported until November 9, 1870, when a pastor, who had been ministering to the prisoners in Lingen, contracted the disease; another pastor fared in the same way. These were followed by eight more cases in two buildings in Münster itself, and another two in the community of Überwasser, which bordered on the city of Münster. In the latter part of the year 1870 no cases were reported in the garrison. In the latter part of January 1871 some 3,000 prisoners were brought from Wesel, which was badly infected with the disease, to Münster, and there four of them were immediately taken sick. This was the beginning of a rather extensive epidemic among the prisoners, 143 of whom contracted the disease and thirteen died; the maximum number of cases (107) was reported in February. In the garrison, which numbered 3,910 men, a small number of cases was reported from February on; of twenty-one cases reported, one resulted fatally. In the same month a small epidemic raged among the civil inhabitants, reaching its climax in May. The following table indicates the number of people who contracted the disease:

The number of deaths in the year 1871 was sixty-seven (26·9 per 10,000 inhabitants), and in the year 1872 it was twenty-two; most of the cases occurred in the quarters of the city known as Jüdefeld and Lamberti, on account of the proximity of the prison along the Buddenturm. In the surrounding communities the epidemic reached its climax in July, and after that began to abate rapidly. The only other region in the Governmental District of Münster in which small-pox made its appearance was Recklinghausen, which borders on the Rhenish-Westphalian coal-fields, whence the infection doubtless came; in Recklinghausen there were 28·8 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the year 1871, and 46·4 per 10,000 in the year 1872.

In the Governmental District of Minden only the city and vicinity of Minden were severely attacked; before the war began they were free from small-pox. On September 10 the first prisoners arrived, and among them cases of small-pox had already been observed in the first part of that month; in the course of the next eight days more cases were reported, and of a total number of 5,071 prisoners 98 contracted the disease and 13 succumbed to it. In the garrison, which numbered 5,071 men, one case was reported in October, four in December, and fifty-two in the following months; only two cases terminated fatally. The first case among the civil inhabitants was reported on November 5; the victim was a laundress who had done washing for the prisoners. This constituted the beginning of an epidemic in which 651 persons contracted the disease and 114 succumbed to it; the population of the city was 16,862. The epidemic spread to the surrounding localities, presumably because the woollen blankets which the patients had used were sold there. Throughout the entire district of Minden 391 persons (51·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871, whereas in the following year only 34 deaths were reported, all told.

In the Governmental District of Arnsberg the districts of Dortmund and Bochum, which belonged to the Rhenish-Westphalian coal region, and were even at that time densely populated, were severely attacked by small-pox; the districts of Hamm and Hagen, which bordered on the latter, were likewise very hard hit. The following table indicates the number of persons per 10,000 inhabitants that succumbed to small-pox in the districts mentioned:

In the city of Bochum alone 698 persons (329·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871; almost one-half of the deaths that year were caused by small-pox. The city of Dortmund itself was less severely attacked in the year 1871 than the country surrounding it; in the city alone 96 persons (21·5 per 10,000) died of the disease, whereas in the district of Dortmund, excluding the city, there were 661 deaths (71·4 per 10,000). The near-by city of Hamm was very severely attacked; 114 persons (67·3 per 10,000) succumbed there in the year 1871, whereas the total number of deaths in the rest of the district amounted to 113 (26·5 per 10,000). According to Guttstadt, a prisoner contracted the disease there on November 2 and subsequently died. The first cases among the civil inhabitants were reported on November 22; the victims were an occupant of a public-house situated near the lazaret, and a Catholic priest who had visited the patients.

In the Rhine Province the districts of the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial centre belonging to the Governmental District of Düsseldorf also suffered severely from small-pox: e.g. the districts of Crefeld, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Mettmann, Elberfeld, and Barmen; later on, in the year 1872, the districts of Lennep and Solingen were also severely attacked. The districts in the Governmental District of Düsseldorf lying on the left side of the Rhine were all, with the exception of Crefeld, mildly attacked. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the various districts mentioned:

The districts on the left side of the Rhine:

The districts on the right side of the Rhine:

On August 17 and 18, seven infected Frenchmen arrived at the city of Düsseldorf and were at once isolated in a house outside the city limits; in November a few more infected prisoners arrived. In the small German garrison (523 men) no cases were observed until later (April and May). In December 1870, 20 cases among the civil inhabitants were reported; they constituted the beginning of an epidemic which developed rapidly, reached its climax in July with 648 cases, and then quickly disappeared. In the following year, 524 small-pox patients (75·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) died in the city of Düsseldorf.

In the district of Duisburg eleven cases of small-pox were reported in December 1870, and here again the epidemic developed rapidly, reaching its climax (1,549 cases) in May 1871. The city of Duisburg was most severely attacked; 529 persons (173·2 per 10,000 inhabitants) died there of small-pox in the year 1871.

In the stronghold of Wesel (district of Rees), where the prisoners were confined in the stronghold itself on Buderich Island and Spellmer Heath, persons suffering from small-pox arrived in August and September; and still more arrived in November with a transport of prisoners from Metz. Of the 16,299 prisoners, 1,042 (63·9 per 1,000) contracted small-pox, and 127 (12·2 per cent of those taken sick) died; the largest number of cases was reported in January. In the garrison, which numbered 7,284 men, there were 117 cases of the disease and seven deaths. Since the inhabitants of the city of Wesel and of the surrounding country had continual intercourse with the prisoners, the dissemination of the disease was inevitable; the epidemic among the civil inhabitants began in November and carried away nine persons in 1870 and eighty-four persons in 1871.

In Elberfeld the epidemic did not become very widespread until December 1871. The first fatal case in the city of Essen was reported in January 1871; the epidemic then increased in fury until June 1871 (48 deaths), when it began to abate. In the following year it revived a little in May, when 26 cases were reported. All told, 272 persons (53·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) died of small-pox in Essen in the year 1871, and 112 persons (21·0 per 10,000) in the year 1872.^[274]

In the Governmental District of Cologne small-pox became more or less widespread in the years 1871–2 in the city and immediate vicinity of Cologne; in the few years preceding the war Cologne had had numerous cases of the disease, and in the year 1866 a small epidemic (223 cases) had occurred there; in the year 1869 some forty cases were officially reported. According to Guttstadt, the first transport of prisoners, among them a small-pox patient, passed through Cologne early in September. Of the gradually increasing number of prisoners (the maximum number, including Deutz, was 13,774) 175, all told, contracted the disease and twenty-four succumbed to it. In the garrison, which numbered 9,207 men, there were only nineteen cases of the disease and one death. Among the civil inhabitants an epidemic broke out as early as September 12; it reached its climax in April 1871, abated somewhat during the summer, and in October and November started up again. The following table indicates the number of people that contracted and succumbed to the disease in the months mentioned (the population of the city at that time was 129,000):

According to this table, 63 persons (4·9 per 10,000 inhabitants) died in the months September-December 1870, and 416 persons (32·2 per 10,000) died in the year 1871; in the following year 25 more deaths (1·9 per 10,000) were reported. In the district of Cologne (excluding the city) 212 persons (24·3 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871; in all the other districts the number of deaths caused by the disease was small.

In the Governmental District of Coblenz the city of Coblenz and the adjacent districts of Neuwied and Mayen, as well as the district of Kreuznach, which lay in the extreme south and very near the scene of the war, were most severely attacked in the year 1871. In the stronghold of Coblenz, according to Guttstadt, a locksmith contracted the disease in the latter part of August; he had become infected while sitting beside the body of his brother, who had succumbed to the disease in Casbach, a village near Lingen, in Hanover. The first prisoners arrived in Coblenz on September 15, and on September 23 one of them was found to be suffering from small-pox and was taken to the lazaret; new transports of prisoners kept bringing more cases of the disease. Of the 15,011 French prisoners that arrived there, a large number contracted the disease; the maximum number was in January, when 571 (38·0 per 1,000) were taken sick, and 111 died (19·4 per cent of the patients). In the garrison, which consisted of 8,710 men, there were 83 cases of the disease and four deaths in the month of November. Among the civil inhabitants of Coblenz 81 persons (24·2 per 10,000) died of small-pox in the year 1871; in the rest of the district of Coblenz 277 persons (67·1 per 10,000) died; in the district of Mayen there were 234 deaths (43·9 per 10,000), in the district of Neuwied 220 deaths (32·3), and in the district of Kreuznach 129 deaths (21·2). In the year 1872 the epidemic was not at all widespread in any of the districts.

In the Governmental District of Aix-la-Chapelle only the district of Malmedy suffered severely in the year 1871; being in the south-western part of the governmental district it was, like the border districts in the Governmental District of Trèves mentioned below, exposed to the first onrush of the transports of prisoners. The number of deaths there in the year 1871 was 333 (111·0 per 10,000), whereas in the following year not a single death due to small-pox was reported in the district. At Jülich a Frenchman suffering from small-pox arrived in July, and in November an epidemic broke out among the prisoners; 188 cases of small-pox were reported, and of these only three terminated fatally. In the garrison only one man contracted the disease.

The governmental district of Trèves had a very large number of small-pox cases in the year 1871, since a large part of it bordered directly on the enemy’s country, so that large numbers of sick and convalescent prisoners passed through it. In the year 1872 only a few cases of small-pox were reported, except in the immediate vicinity of Trèves, where the pestilence became quite widespread. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the districts mentioned:

The province of Hesse-Nassau suffered very little from small-pox in the years 1871–2, since a compulsory vaccination law had long been in force there. Large epidemics did not occur anywhere. In Cassel a case of small-pox had occurred in the summer of 1870, and after that there were no more cases until November 9; on that day a man was taken sick who had been acting as a sutler among the German troops before Paris and had there been infected. On November 18 a nurse employed in a house in which a field-soldier was quartered contracted the disease, and this case was followed by six more cases among the civil inhabitants; all told, six persons succumbed to small-pox in the city of Cassel in the year 1870, ninety-nine persons (21·4 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and four persons in the year 1872.

In Frankfurt-on-the-Main a few cases of small-pox were reported in the course of the year 1870; the disease was perhaps conveyed thither from Stuttgart. After the commencement of the war it was borne into the city by numerous transports of soldiers and prisoners, and a widespread epidemic soon developed. In the garrison thirty-two cases of the disease were reported. After the Rochus Hospital was opened to small-pox patients, in April, the epidemic reached its climax; the following table, found in the German Health Report, indicates the number of patients received into the above-mentioned hospital and the number that died there:

In August the epidemic came to an end. All told, there were 23 deaths due to small-pox in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1870, 125 deaths (13·7 per 10,000 inhabitants) in 1871, and 25 deaths in 1872.

In Wiesbaden an epidemic began in December 1870, and reached its climax in February. The population of the city was 35,463, and of these 6 succumbed to small-pox in 1870, 71 in 1871, and two in 1872. Regarding the origin of this small epidemic no information is available.

(b) The Dissemination of Small-pox in Saxony in the Years 1870–2

The kingdom of Saxony experienced a very severe epidemic of small-pox in consequence of the Franco-German War. The wide dissemination of the disease is attributed by Wunderlich to the fact that vaccination, in consequence of the wild agitation of the anti-vaccinationists, was insufficiently practised; prior to the year 1874 vaccination was not compulsory in Saxony. Even before the war broke out small-pox had appeared in Saxony in the form of epidemics, e.g. in Chemnitz and Freiberg. The following table indicates the number of persons, all told, that succumbed to small-pox in Saxony:^[275]

Of the immobile troops stationed in Saxony, the total number of whom was 17,628, some 506, all told, contracted the disease and 30 succumbed to it.

Regarding the dissemination of small-pox in Leipzig and vicinity we have accurate information.^[276] In Leipzig itself small-pox patients were housed only in the city hospital. A small epidemic of the disease had raged there in the years 1868–9. In the year 1870, eighteen patients were committed to the hospital in the months of January-July, after which there were no more cases until October; on the 22nd, 23rd, and 31st of that month a single patient, each time a French prisoner, was taken to the hospital. On November 7 a laundress employed in the hospital contracted the disease; the first case among the civil inhabitants was reported on November 10. In December an epidemic began which spread rapidly and reached its climax in April. The following table indicates the number of patients committed to the hospital in the months mentioned:

The epidemic lasted until the year 1872, and the highest mortality was in the month of May 1871; the number of deaths caused by the disease in the various months was as follows:

Among these 1,077 victims of the disease were 21 soldiers and 27 outsiders from the surrounding villages. The disease was very virulent. Of the 1,727 patients treated in the hospital 253 died (14·7 per cent). The population of Leipzig in the year 1871 was 106,922, so that the 1,052 deaths of the year 1871 correspond to a mortality of 98·4 per 10,000 inhabitants. Of 3,726 prisoners, 98 (76·3 per 10,000) contracted the disease and 9 died.

In the district of Leipzig no case of small-pox was officially reported between the months of May and October. When the disease broke out in the city of Leipzig it was of course inevitable, in view of the constant intercourse between the city and the surrounding country, that it should spread rapidly among the working people who were employed in the city and lived in the country, first to the immediate vicinity, and then, following the chief lines of traffic, to the more remote localities.^[277] Of 113 places 106 were attacked; only two peasant-villages and five isolated farm-estates were spared. The villages inhabited by working people were much more severely attacked than those inhabited by farmers and peasants. The progress of the epidemic is indicated by the following figures, which Siegel says are incomplete, since not all the cases were reported, and which correspond at best to only one-half of the actual number of cases and deaths:

According to this table the number of deaths in the district of Leipzig, the population of which was 97,100, was eight in the year 1870, 1,417 (145·9 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 60 in the year 1872. Accurate figures regarding the ratio of deaths to total cases cannot be computed; at all events small-pox raged very severely, owing partly to insufficient vaccination, and partly to the wretched conditions in which the working people lived.

In Dresden, mild epidemics of small-pox had raged in the year 1864 and again in the years 1867–8; between the months of January and August 1870 not a single small-pox patient was taken to the city hospital; the first case was committed to the hospital on September 27 of that year, and after that two more persons contracted the disease in a barrack. The disease spread from there, at first along the streets in the vicinity of the barrack, and then throughout the Antonstadt, Neustadt, and finally the Altstadt. The epidemic reached its climax among the civil inhabitants in April 1871, in the garrison in January. The following table indicates the number of patients committed to the city hospital in the months mentioned:^[278]

All told, there were fifteen deaths due to the disease in Dresden in the year 1870, 570 deaths (32·7 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 151 deaths (8·4 per 10,000) in the year 1872. Among the prisoners there were 150 cases of the disease, and of these nine were fatal; in the garrison there were 413 cases and twenty-one deaths.

The epidemic of small-pox in Chemnitz, at least the beginning of it, was in no way connected with the war. An exhaustive report made out by Flinzer,^[279] who carefully investigated the conditions relative to vaccination in the year 1871, furnishes us the following figures; of 64,255 inhabitants 53,891 were vaccinated, 5,712 were unvaccinated, 4,652 had survived a previous attack of small-pox, and only 1,928 persons had been vaccinated more than once. The epidemic of small-pox began in January 1870, and reached its climax in December of that year. From March 1871 to September 1872, only a few cases of the disease were observed, but after September the number of cases suddenly began to grow larger, resulting in a second severe epidemic, which continued to increase in severity until March 1873. The mortality statistics found in Flinzer’s report are reproduced below; they go only as far as April 1873, but after that the epidemic abated considerably:

A particularly good idea of the protection against small-pox afforded by vaccination is given in the Chemnitz statistics for the years 1870–1. Of 53,891 vaccinated persons 953 (1·8 per cent) contracted the disease in those two years and seven succumbed to it, all of whom were more than ten years of age; of 5,712 unvaccinated persons, almost one-half contracted the disease (2,643 or 46·3 per cent, to be precise), and of these 243 (9·16 of those taken sick) died. Of those who died, 102 were less than one year old, 51 were less than two years old, 47 were in their fourth or fifth year, and 20 were from five to ten years of age.

How dangerous small-pox showed itself to be after the Franco-German War is indicated by a report of Geissler^[280] regarding the epidemic in Meerane, a manufacturing town of some 20,000 inhabitants. There, between October 1871 and May 1872, no less than 460 persons (434 children and 26 adults) succumbed to small-pox, i.e. 230 per 10,000 inhabitants. Of the children 80·3, and of the adults 26·3, succumbed to the disease in the course of the epidemic.

(c) Small-pox in Bavaria in the Years 1871–2

In the year 1866 Bavaria had an epidemic of small-pox, which, although it abated considerably in the following years, did not leave the country entirely free from the disease; it was, however, confined to a very few localities in the year 1870. In Upper Bavaria cases were reported in that year only in Altötting and Friedberg; in Lower Bavaria absolutely no cases were reported; in Upper Franconia a small epidemic raged in August 1870, in the district of Forchheim; in Central Franconia, where in the year 1868 a rather severe epidemic had raged, the disease had almost entirely disappeared by 1870; Lower Franconia and Swabia, finally, had only sporadic cases of the disease. French prisoners and homeward-bound soldiers, away on furlough, caused the pestilence, as was reported from all sides, to break out anew; the rapid dissemination of the disease, according to these reports, was helped by persons coming in direct contact with French prisoners in crowded places, by teamsters returning from France, by German fugitives from France, by persons handling the linen and clothes of patients, and by the sale of woollen blankets and other things which the French prisoners brought with them. The following table indicates the number of people who succumbed to small-pox in Bavaria:^[281]

Munich fared pretty well, and the civil population suffered less than the soldiers.^[282] Not a single case of small-pox occurred there during the entire year of 1870. In November an officer suffering from dysentery returned home from France, and shortly after his arrival he was taken sick with small-pox, which later attacked two members of his family. In the first part of the year 1871 small-pox became more and more widespread, and reached its climax in June. The total number of deaths in the year 1870 was 7, in the year 1871 it was 150 (8·9 per 10,000 inhabitants), and in the year 1872 it was 108 (6·4 per 10,000 inhabitants). The following table indicates the number of deaths that occurred in the months mentioned:

In Nuremberg^[283] sixteen isolated cases of small-pox were observed up to the end of September in the year 1870, and twenty cases from October to December (five in October, four in November, and eleven in December); not a single patient succumbed to the disease in the course of that year. In January the number of people to contract the disease increased rapidly, and the climax of the epidemic was reached in April. The following table indicates the number of deaths caused by the disease in the months mentioned:

In the second half of the year 1872 there were two more deaths due to small-pox. The total number of deaths caused by the disease was 73 (8·8 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 40 (4·8 per 10,000) in the year 1872.

Augsburg was very severely attacked. A Bavarian soldier and two French prisoners succumbed there to small-pox in December 1870. In January the disease spread to the civil population, increased rapidly in severity, and reached its climax in May. After abating a little in September, the epidemic started up anew and did not disappear entirely until May 1872. The number of deaths is indicated by the monthly reports found in the Bavarian Ärztliches Intelligenzblatt, a few of which we reproduce:

The total number of deaths, some of which are not included in the monthly lists, was 234 (45·7 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 71 (13·8 per 10,000) in the year 1872.

In Regensburg sixteen persons (eleven prisoners, three soldiers, and two civilians) contracted the disease in the latter part of 1870; in 1871 as many as 123 persons contracted the disease, and of these thirty-three died. In Bamberg the first two cases were reported in December 1870, the disease having been brought there from Würzburg; up to August 1871 some ninety persons contracted the disease, among them twenty-three prisoners and five soldiers; of these, eight died. After a short lull, new cases were reported (between December 1, 1871, and August 1872); there were thirty-one cases, all told (seventeen of the patients being soldiers), and only one death.^[284]

(d) Small-pox in Württemberg in the Years 1871–2

In Württemberg, where vaccination had been compulsory since 1818, but had been frequently evaded in the ‘sixties in consequence of the agitation of the anti-vaccinationists, an epidemic of small-pox raged in the years 1863–7, causing, all told, 804 deaths. In the latter part of the year 1869 a new epidemic began and carried away many people, particularly in Stuttgart, but also in the rest of the Neckar district. With the arrival of the French prisoners the number of cases increased rapidly, and the disease appeared in many places which had never before been attacked. The following table indicates the number of reported cases and deaths:^[285]

But the reports were not always complete, for the reason that many cases were kept secret. The following table indicates the number of deaths caused by small-pox in the various districts:

In the years 1869–70 Stuttgart^[286] was the principal seat of the epidemic; sixty-six cases were reported there in 1866, fifteen cases in 1867, and seventeen cases in 1868; only one case terminated fatally in the year 1868. In the year 1869, after an average of twenty cases per month had been officially reported up to August, the disease raged more and more furiously, so that the total number of cases for the entire year was no less than 744. In the following year the disease continued to increase in severity until February, when it began to abate somewhat, so that in October 1870 only thirteen cases were reported. Then the number of cases steadily increased again until June 1871, when the epidemic once more subsided a little, only to reach another moderate climax in November. In the middle of the year 1872 the epidemic suddenly came to an end. The following table indicates the number of deaths caused by small-pox in the Stuttgart epidemic:

It is impossible to prove that the recrudescence of the disease in Stuttgart in the latter part of 1870 was in any way connected with the arrival of infected persons from France. In the garrison, which numbered some 3,000 men, only four mild cases occurred, inasmuch as all recruits had been vaccinated in Württemberg since the year 1833. But in the latter part of the year 1870 there arrived a battalion of the Landwehr, a third of whom had never done active service, and had therefore never been revaccinated in accordance with the military regulation; after this, numerous cases were reported in the garrison (October 1870 to April 1871), although none of them resulted fatally.

The connexion between the epidemic in the stronghold of Ulm and the war was very obvious. Says Volz:^[287] ‘After the summer of 1870 had produced only a few cases of small-pox, and a long pause (August to the beginning of November) had intervened, during which we saw absolutely no traces of the disease, the arrival of French prisoners caused the disease to spread far and wide, constituting a part of the epidemic which raged throughout almost all of Europe. In the latter part of September the first cases of small-pox were observed among the prisoners. But a month and a half elapsed before the disease made its appearance among the civil inhabitants; one of the first cases was traced to the beds in the barracks. In January 1871 the disease was conveyed to Söflingen by a woman from that place who had been employed as a nurse in the military hospital at New Ulm. The constant intercourse between Söflingen and Ulm soon asserted itself through the infection of working-men who were employed in the latter place and lived in the former. At the same time the disease frequently appeared among the laundry-owners, washerwomen, scrubwomen, innkeepers, sutler-women, and generally among persons who were employed in any capacity in the field-hospitals and forts. Then, too, patients kept arriving who had been infected in Baden, Switzerland, Bavaria, North Germany, and in regions which, like ours, had been infected by prisoners and fugitives arriving from France. In the district of Beimerstetten the disease also made its appearance, having been brought there in a carpet which a woman purchased from a Bavarian soldier who had accompanied a transport of prisoners. In addition to this woman, sixteen more persons contracted the disease, and three of them died.’

In the city of Ulm thirty-six civilians (13·7 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to the disease, while in the district of Ulm forty-six persons (21·2 per 10,000) died. The climax of the epidemic was reached in May; after a short lull in August and September it started up again and lasted until the autumn of 1872. The garrison at Ulm was also attacked, but not very severely.

Of the immobile troops in Württemberg, who averaged 10,122 men, 7·9 per 1,000 contracted the disease. Of the French prisoners that were held in Württemberg, 390 contracted the disease (the climax, 199 cases, was reached in December). The maximum number of prisoners was 12,958, and 30·1 per 1,000 contracted the disease and twenty-eight died (7·2 per cent of those taken sick).

In Heilbronn,^[288] as in Stuttgart, a small epidemic had raged before the war broke out; from February to July 1870 some forty persons had contracted the disease. From August to October no more cases were reported, but in November a new epidemic began and spread with great rapidity. The following table indicates the number of cases and deaths in the small-pox hospital at Heilbronn:

In addition to these, twenty-seven cases of the disease were reported in the city, so that the total number of patients was perhaps as large as 1,000. All told, seventy-one persons died in Heilbronn in the course of the epidemic.

(e) Small-pox in Baden in the Years 1871–2

In Baden a great many cases of small-pox were reported among the French prisoners; their maximum number was 12,083, and of these 512 (42·4 per 1,000) contracted the disease, and 21 (4·1 per cent of those taken sick) succumbed to it. The largest number of cases (133) was observed in January. Regarding the distribution of the French prisoners among the various dépôts no information is available, while regarding the immobile German troops we know absolutely nothing. Among the civil inhabitants a small epidemic raged as early as the year 1869, particularly in the district of Mannheim. In the latter part of the year 1870 a considerable number of cases was reported, and a rather severe epidemic rapidly developed. According to a written report of the Baden Bureau of Statistics, the number of deaths due to small-pox per 10,000 inhabitants was as follows:

Of those cities which at that time had more than 10,000 inhabitants, Mannheim and Karlsruhe suffered very little; Rastatt, Freiburg, and Constance were the most severely attacked. The number of deaths caused by small-pox was: