Chapter VIII (2)

In East Prussia small-pox broke out very frequently in the city and vicinity of Königsberg. According to Guttstadt, small-pox patients, in consequence of the proximity of the Russian border, kept coming to the hospital in Königsberg, into which twelve persons suffering from the disease were received between January 1 and August 1, 1870. The first prisoners-of-war arrived at Königsberg on August 15, 1870, and among them was a small-pox patient. Shortly afterwards two more cases of the disease occurred among the prisoners. The first case among the civil population occurred in the hospital on September 2. Owing to the constant intercourse between the prisoners and the civil inhabitants the epidemic spread very rapidly. The districts surrounding Königsberg were very severely attacked in the year 1871, while the more remote districts, especially those along the boundary of West Prussia, were not attacked until the year 1872. In the districts around Königsberg the mortality per 10,000 inhabitants was as follows:

1871. 1872.
Königsberg (city) 49·8 3·6
Königsberg (vicinity) 78·4 13·3
Labiau 42·4 30·6
Wehlau 103·1 8·9
Insterburg 32·2 47·3
Fischhausen 38·7 17·9

In the districts of East Prussia more remote from Königsberg the following number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants were reported:

1871. 1872.
Memel 5·5 37·0
Gerdauen 18·9 53·1
Rastenburg 65·9 26·8
Friedland 13·7 35·5
Eylau 15·2 29·7
Heiligenbeil 19·7 8·1
Braunsberg 2·9 10·1
Heilsberg 6·3 27·2
Rössel 25·7 52·2
Allenstein 7·4 108·5
Ortelsburg 20·6 124·4
Neidenburg 1·7 45·6
Osterode 4·7 76·5
Mohrungen 2·1 36·2
Prus. Holland 1·1 8·3
Heydekrug 43·3
Niederung 23·7 84·6
Tilsit 5·4 46·3
Ragnit 4·6 51·7
Pillkallen 0·7 17·4
Stallupönen 0·7 14·0
Gumbinnen 17·1 35·8
Darkehmen 3·8 25·3
Angerburg 10·9 81·0
Goldap 2·3 41·2
Oletzko 1·0 24·7
Lyk 2·4 17·8
Lötzen 5·1 28·3
Sensburg 13·3 52·1
Johannisburg 15·8 12·4

Several of the last fifteen districts (Heydekrug to Johannisburg in the above table) had relatively few cases of small-pox; the reason for this was that the governmental district of Gumbinnen had but little intercourse, that few prisoners were taken there at all, and that there were no cases of small-pox among the few that were taken there.

Danzig was the chief seat of the pestilence in West Prussia, since large numbers of prisoners were confined there; per 10,000 inhabitants 79·6 succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871, and 35·9 in the year 1872. Says Liévin:[267] ‘For a considerable length of time no cases of small-pox occurred in Danzig, but in the month of September 1870 the beginnings of an epidemic were observed. Although this happened shortly after the arrival of the first prisoners, nevertheless the beginning of the epidemic was probably not connected in any causal way with this circumstance. For, in the first place, the prisoners were French soldiers captured in the battles of Weissenburg and Wörth, and were in all probability healthy men, judging from the fact that not a single case of the disease occurred among them in the first few months; in the second place, the disease broke out very sporadically in the first three or four months, individual outbreaks occurring here and there in the city, just as has been the case in Danzig almost every year. But during this indigenous pestilence a large number of badly infected prisoners arrived from the Metz garrison; this gave rise to an epidemic which, had the prisoners not arrived, would probably have progressed in the usual, scarcely noticeable manner; as it was, however, the epidemic attained to the largest dimensions known to the memory of man.’

According to Liévin, the total number of small-pox cases in Danzig and its suburbs (including the garrison and the prisoners-of-war) was:

1870. 1871. 1872. _Patients._ _Deaths._ _Patients._ _Deaths._ _Patients._ _Deaths._ January 123 24 245 77 February 129 28 222 77 March 201 51 153 75 April 365 70 89 33 May 459 109 34 17 June 442 123 19 12 July 182 71 13 3 August 130 49 8 7 September 2 111 37 5 2 October 4 2 124 57 2 November 13 2 136 42 December 34 3 135 39

Of the 9,189 prisoners in Danzig, 188 contracted the disease, and 24 died; the largest number of cases was reported in the month of January. Of the garrison, which consisted of 7,376 men, only 45 contracted the disease,[268] and 5 died.

As in East Prussia, so also in West Prussia, only those districts suffered severely from small-pox in which large military prisons were located; in the remaining districts the pestilence did not acquire much severity until the following year. Of the three strongholds, Danzig, Thorn, and Graudenz, the last two had but few cases of small-pox among the prisoners; in the districts surrounding them the following number of deaths per 1,000 inhabitants were reported:

1871. 1872.
Danzig (city) 79·6 35·9
Danzig (district) 91·2 59·2
Prussian Stargard 55·5 105·0
Rosenberg 40·5 66·5
Thorn 46·0 41·7

In the remaining districts of West Prussia the mortality due to small-pox was as follows:

1871. 1872.
Elbing 18·7 71·8
Marienburg 16·0 68·6
Berent 6·6 47·7
Karthaus 7·7 67·9
Neustadt 22·9 89·0
Stuhm 21·4 97·8
Marienwerder 21·3 62·3
Löbau 4·9 88·0
Strassburg 6·1 80·7
Kulm 25·9 65·5
Graudenz 5·4 55·9
Schwetz 11·0 118·6
Konitz 9·7 79·7
Schlochau 6·9 69·5
Flatow 23·4 74·1
Deutsch-Krone 10·2 92·1

All these districts, especially Prussian-Stargard and Schwetz, which lay side by side along the Vistula, had an unusually high mortality in the year 1872.

The Governmental District of Posen, in the Province of Posen, was much more severely attacked by small-pox in the year 1871 than the Governmental District of Bromberg, whereas in the year 1872 the condition was reversed. In the former district cases of small-pox had occurred even before a transport of French prisoners arrived there in the middle of September; in that month two of the prisoners contracted the disease, and these two cases constituted the beginning of a large epidemic among the prisoners. According to Guttstadt, the epidemic among the civil inhabitants did not commence until February 1872, and it lasted until the middle of that year. The districts along the boundary of Posen (Schroda, Wreschen, Schrimm, Kosten, and Samter) had the largest number of cases and deaths in the year 1871, whereas in the remaining, more distant, districts the figures for the year 1871 are for the most part small, and do not begin to grow large until the year 1872. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the districts mentioned:

1871. 1872.
Posen (city) 82·5 4·4
Posen (district) 103·2 53·0
Schroda 105·6 61·3
Wreschen 116·5 63·1
Schrimm 61·5 88·4
Kosten 75·9 72·4
Samter 66·9 83·4
Pleschen 17·9 56·7
Buk 38·2 42·2
Obornik 22·2 76·3
Birnbaum 15·4 63·6
Meseritz 13·0 53·3
Bomst 20·5 34·1
Fraustadt 21·5 26·0
Gröben 55·8 79·5
Krotoschin 22·1 62·0
Adelnau 26·3 29·4
Schildberg 14·6 91·6

The first prisoners that contracted small-pox in the city of Bromberg were committed to the lazaret on December 15; the epidemic among the civil inhabitants began there on February 10, 1871. The figures for 1871 were higher than those for 1872 in only three districts—Bromberg itself, the adjacent Schubin, and Czarnikau; the last-named district lies in the west and borders on Samter in the Governmental District of Posen. All the other districts that are not mentioned had higher figures in the year 1872. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the districts named:

1871. 1872.
Czarnikau 47·0 69·8
Wirsitz 14·7 65·4
Bromberg 89·7 72·3
Schubin 59·4 96·5
Inowrazlaw 20·4 102·5
Mogilno 22·6 96·5
Chlodziesen 24·7 79·7
Wongrowitz 26·3 153·1
Gnesen 32·9 56·0

Of the prisoners in the Governmental District of Liegnitz, those in the stronghold of Glogau were the most severely attacked. In the garrison, too, the number of small-pox patients was quite large. The first prisoners arrived on September 1, and the first cases of small-pox among them appeared on September 16; the maximum number of prisoners there was 13,621, and of these 1,198 contracted the disease. The first case among the civil inhabitants was reported on October 7; in December the disease was conveyed to the surrounding villages, especially by tradespeople who had visited the markets in Glogau. The adjacent districts suffered relatively little in the year 1871. In the governmental district of Liegnitz, with the exception of Glogau, where there were 31·2 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants, only Görlitz and Liegnitz had high figures in the year 1871. In the city of Görlitz a prisoner was committed to the lazaret in November 1870, and in December, when a transport of prisoners passed through the city, one of them was left behind there; the epidemic among the civil inhabitants began in January 1871. Again in the year 1872 small-pox did not become very widespread except in the districts of Liegnitz, Jauer, Hirschberg, and Görlitz; Liegnitz, with a mortality of 35·2 per 10,000 inhabitants, had the highest figures.

In the Governmental District of Breslau cases of small-pox were frequently reported. In the city of Breslau the first case among the prisoners occurred on November 11, the second on January 27, the third and fourth in April and May, 1871; the first cases in the garrison likewise occurred in November; from January on, the number of cases grew steadily larger. The number of reported cases in the city was:[269]

January 33
February 68
March 90
April 68
May 134
June 235
July 287
August 271
September 361
October 699
November 1,026
December 1,229
January 1,311
February 790
March 462
April 242

The epidemic was very severe. Whereas during the previous epidemics (1856–7, 1863–4, and 1868–9) only about seven per cent of the patients treated in the hospital died, in 1871–2 no less than 322 out of 2,416 patients (13·4 per cent) taken there were carried away by the disease. Of the 322 patients, moreover, 182 had hemorrhagic small-pox, and of these 166 died.

The immediate vicinity of Breslau was very severely attacked; in the districts lying to the south of the Oder small-pox raged extensively in the year 1871, whereas those districts on the north side of the river did not suffer very severely until the year 1872. This may be explained by the fact that the extensive industrial activity of the districts south-west of the Oder rendered considerable intercourse with Breslau necessary. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the districts north-east of the Oder:

1871. 1872.
Namslau 4·0 48·5
Wartenberg 14·0 55·4
Oels 22·3 71·0
Trebnitz 8·6 27·8
Militsch 10·0 37·2
Gurau 15·5 20·2
Steinau 12·1 34·2
Wohlau 41·1 38·4

and in the districts south-west of the Oder:

1871. 1872.
Neumarkt 13·5 61·5
Breslau (city) 35·7 27·3
Breslau (district) 57·3 74·9
Ohlau 12·2 23·3
Brieg 5·2 17·2
Strehlau 30·3 33·8
Nimptsch 23·5 37·4
Münsterberg 53·0 29·0
Frankenstein 34·3 14·3
Reichenbach 32·0 19·8
Schweidnitz 26·3 13·4
Striegau 16·9 48·2
Waldenburg 57·7 36·2
Glatz 39·1 13·4
Neurode 20·2 35·6
Habelschwerdt 8·2 7·3

In Upper Silesia the stronghold of Neisse had a maximum number of 12,801 prisoners, among whom there were 385 cases of small-pox and 117 deaths; in the garrison, which averaged 4,452 men, there were 39 cases and 1 death. The first cases among the prisoners were reported on September 25, and in the garrison in November. The civil inhabitants suffered very little in the year 1871, and the number of deaths among them did not begin to grow large until 1872. Only in the district of Neisse and in the neighbouring district of Grottkau was the number of deaths larger in 1871 than in 1872; in all the other districts there were more deaths in 1872. The districts which were most severely attacked in the year 1872 were—Kreuzburg (78·2 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants), Posenberg (58·6), Gross-Strelitz (60·0), Beuthen (56·5), and Kosel (62·4).

In the Province of Pomerania the city of Stettin came to be a general rendezvous for prisoners of war; the maximum number of them, owing to the continual arrival of new transports, was no less than 21,000. The first transport arrived on August 12, and the first small-pox patient among them was committed to the hospital on August 28. Of the prisoners, 1,303 contracted the disease and 194 succumbed to it. The climax of the epidemic came in January, when there were 462 cases reported. The first cases in the garrison, which averaged 7,000 men, occurred in October, the first man to contract the disease being a sick-attendant, and the second an artilleryman; after that, all the branches of service were attacked. The epidemic in the garrison, however, was confined to 74 men, only 5 of whom died. In December the disease spread to the civil population; the number of cases (including the garrison) was 422 (55·5 per 10,000) in the year 1871, and 113 (14·8 per 10,000) in the following year. In the Governmental District of Stettin only the communities surrounding the city of Stettin had high small-pox figures in the year 1871, and these communities were also more severely attacked in the year 1872. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the communities mentioned:

1871. 1872.
Demmin 1·1 2·6
Anklam 4·3 15·8
Usedom-Wollin 16·4 16·2
Uckermünde 24·7 26·4
Randow 70·4 29·3
Greifenhagen 37·8 26·3
Pyritz 15·3 23·1
Saazig 27·8 27·4
Naugard 32·4 32·6
Kammin 10·3 13·3
Greifenberg 4·3 10·4
Regenwalde 16·4 27·5

At the stronghold of Kolberg (Governmental District of Köslin) 3,500 prisoners arrived on November 4, and in December and January they were followed by the arrival of more transports. The first cases among these prisoners were reported on November 14; all told, 175 of them contracted small-pox and 24 succumbed to it. On January 7 the disease spread to the civil population, but did not rage very extensively in the city; 127 civilians contracted it and 24 succumbed to it, and in August 1871 it disappeared; only two men in the garrison were taken sick. Many of the prisoners in Kolberg were transported to Stettin, Köslin, and Stolp, and in all three of these places the disease broke out among the civil inhabitants. In Schivelbein an infected soldier was found among the prisoners who arrived on January 24, 1871, and on January 26 he was committed to the lazaret; in February a working-man contracted the disease in the same lazaret, and after that the epidemic spread throughout the city and did not disappear until October 1872; it carried away a relatively large number of people and spread to two neighbouring villages. But taking the Governmental District of Köslin as a whole, it may be said that the dissemination of small-pox was moderate; the district of Schlawe had the largest number of deaths (22·7 per 10,000 inhabitants). On the other hand, in the year 1872 small-pox caused a very large number of deaths in the districts of Neustettin, Dramburg, Schlawe, Rummelsburg, and Stolp.

The number of cases of the disease in the Governmental District of Stralsund was very large. Small-pox broke out very severely among the French prisoners in the city of Stralsund, the maximum number of whom was 2,991; of these 234 contracted the disease and 35 succumbed to it. The prisoners arrived on December 4, and among them was a small-pox patient; he was committed to the lazaret on December 9. In the garrison, which averaged 3,700 men, there were only thirty-one cases of the disease and one death. The first case among the civil inhabitants occurred on January 7; the patient was a clerk who lived near the lazaret and had had more or less intercourse with the prisoners. Of twenty-three more cases that occurred before January 15, at least six were shown to be directly attributable to the epidemic among the prisoners; one of the six was a sick-attendant, two were working-men in the military lazaret, and the other three were members of the families of attendants. The epidemic then became very widespread; to the end of the year 1871 the number of deaths was 366, and the number of reported cases was 1,807. In Greifswald a French prisoner contracted small-pox on October 18, 1870, in the military reserve lazaret, another on November 1, and a third on November 16. The first civilian, an attendant, contracted the disease on December 13, and on January 6, 1871, a working-man, who had transported the attendant from the military lazaret to the town small-pox hospital, was taken sick. Until February 14, ten more cases were reported, and then the epidemic began. Up to the end of the year 1871 no less than 578 cases of the disease and 111 deaths caused by it were reported to the authorities. In the year 1872 there were only a few deaths caused by small-pox throughout the entire Governmental District of Stralsund.

In the case of the two adjacent confederate states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz no small-pox mortality statistics are available. On September 20, prisoners from Metz were taken to the reserve lazaret in Schwerin, and among them was a small-pox patient who died eight days later. In the same month an assistant in the lazaret was taken sick, and in October and December two more members of the lazaret staff contracted the disease. The pestilence spread to the civil population because the attendants who were commissioned to dispose of the effects of the dead, instead of destroying them, sold or gave them to the inhabitants. The epidemic, which spread rapidly throughout the surrounding country, was quite severe and lasted until March 1871. In Wismar two cases of small-pox were reported among the prisoners in December, and these were followed by six more cases in January and February; in the garrison, which averaged 1,219 men, there were 48 cases of the disease (5 in January, 32 in February, 9 in March, and 2 in April); 3 of the 48 were fatal. At Rostock 649 prisoners arrived on November 11, and these were followed by 544 more on December 14; among the latter there were two small-pox patients, and in the course of the next few months forty-one more cases of the disease and six deaths were reported.

Berlin suffered severely from an epidemic of small-pox in the years 1871–2. The last large epidemic there had occurred in the year 1801, and had carried away 1,626 out of 176,700 inhabitants. In the year 1864 another rather mild epidemic had broken out, but had quickly disappeared. In the year 1870 the number of small-pox patients in Berlin was small; an average of nine persons per month succumbed to the disease between the first part of August and the last part of November. In the month of December 1870 the death-rate began to increase, at first rather slowly; the number of deaths in that month was 22, and in March 1872 it was 176. The epidemic now began to spread rapidly, and in June it reached its climax with 648 deaths; during the summer it abated a little, but in the fall it began to rage more and more furiously until December, when it reached a second climax with 671 deaths. The progress of the epidemic is shown by the following table, taken from Guttstadt’s excellent book. The number of deaths caused by small-pox in Berlin was:

November (1870) 9
December 22
January (1871) 48
February 80
March 176
April 349
May 430
June 648
July 532
August 528
September 490
October 600
November 660
December 671
January (1872) 445
February 256
March 151
April 117
May 76
June 33
July 18
August 10

The disease was unusually severe and virulent; fifteen per cent of the patients died in the hospitals. The total number of deaths[270] in the year 1871, when the population of the city was 826,341, was 5,212, or 63·1 per 10,000 inhabitants; thus the total mortality, which in the years 1867–70 had been 31·8 per cent (including the still-births), reached the prodigious height of 40·4 per cent. The cause of the wide dissemination of small-pox in Berlin was the fact that large numbers of people, including children, had never been vaccinated, and only a few had ever been revaccinated. According to a rough estimate made by Guttstadt, of Berlin’s total population in the year 1871 some 20,000 people had never been vaccinated, 530,000 had been vaccinated only once, and only 270,000 had been revaccinated; fourteen per cent of those who had never been vaccinated, two per cent of those who had been vaccinated once, and O·5 per cent of those who had been revaccinated, contracted the disease. In the garrison, which averaged 9,110 men, only 57 cases of the disease and 4 deaths were reported between July 1, 1870, and June 30, 1871. But few prisoners were taken to Berlin; only 24 prisoners suffering from small-pox were committed to the lazarets, and of these only 4 died; the first two cases were in August and September.

In the Governmental District of Potsdam only those districts which bordered directly on Berlin were severely attacked by small-pox in the year 1871, e.g. the districts of Niederbarnim, Teltow, Jüterbog, Luckenwalde, and East and West Havelland; in the following years those districts bordering on Niederbarnim (as Oberbarnim, Angermünde, and Templin) also suffered severely. In the city of Potsdam two Frenchmen contracted the disease on February 6, shortly after their arrival there, and on February 19 a soldier who had accompanied them was taken sick. In April an epidemic of rather wide extent was raging in the city; the number of deaths caused by small-pox in April 1871 was 157 (34·5 per 10,000 inhabitants), and in April 1872 it was 71 (16·2 per 10,000). In the city of Brandenburg-on-the-Havel an infected French soldier arrived in February 1871; he communicated the disease to his attendant, and in that very month cases of small-pox were reported among the civil inhabitants of the city, although it was impossible to prove a connexion between them and that of the French soldier. The number of deaths, all told, was 59. The number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the Governmental District of Potsdam was:

1871. 1872.
Prenzlau 7·5 11·1
Templin 17·5 28·4
Angermünde 15·0 53·4
Oberbarnim 18·2 33·8
Niederbarnim 36·5 27·1
Teltow 46·4 40·4
Beeskow-Storkow 20·6 39·8
Jüterbog-Luckenwalde 43·4 38·7
Zauch-Belzig 14·6 38·1
East Havelland 37·7 14·7
West Havelland 32·3 33·4
Ruppin 26·8 13·3
East Priegnitz 14·9 12·6
West Priegnitz 16·8 23·3

In the Governmental District of Frankfurt small-pox raged only to a moderate extent in the year 1871. In Frankfurt-on-the-Oder itself there were sporadic outbreaks of the disease every year. On November 12 two infected prisoners from Metz were committed to the hospital, and before the end of that month two attendants contracted the disease; a few cases also occurred in the garrison in the month of November. Of the French prisoners, whose maximum number was 756, eight contracted the disease and two succumbed to it; in the garrison, which averaged 1,881 men, there were 21 cases of the disease and no deaths. Among the civil inhabitants, on the other hand, a somewhat more severe epidemic raged; whereas in the year 1870 only 21 cases of the disease were reported, in the year 1871 there were 19 cases in the month of January alone; until May some 196 persons contracted the disease, which after that began to abate. The number of deaths, all told, in the year 1871 was 117, and in 1872 it was 70. In Landsberg-on-the-Warthe small-pox broke out in the middle of November in consequence of the arrival of an infected prisoner; the first case among the civil inhabitants was reported on November 20. The total number of deaths in the year 1871 was 97. At Kottbus an infected French prisoner arrived on October 1, resulting in a rather severe epidemic among the civil inhabitants (114 deaths in the year 1871). Not until the year 1872 did the disease become very widespread in the Governmental District of Frankfurt; with the exception of the city of Frankfurt there was no district which suffered more severely in the year 1871 than in 1872. In most of the districts small-pox broke out very virulently, the only exceptions being the districts of Lübben and Spremberg.

Regarding the dissemination of small-pox in the Province of Saxony Guttstadt gives us very detailed information. In the years 1871–2 the disease was equally prevalent in all three governmental districts in the Province. In the city of Magdeburg the last case was reported on May 24, 1870, and from then until November there was not a single case among the civil inhabitants. The first prisoners arrived at Magdeburg in the latter part of August, and on September 14 a case of small-pox was observed among them; this was followed by ten more cases in that month. Of the prisoners brought to Magdeburg, the maximum number of whom was no less than 25,450, some 1,092 contracted the disease, and of these 271 died. The largest number of cases was reported in the month of February 1871. Of the garrison, which averaged 11,296 men, there were only 84 cases of the disease (7·4 per cent), and of these 8 died. The first case among the civil inhabitants was reported on November 18, 1870, and this was followed by seven more cases in that month, occurring in various parts of the city. The number of deaths in the year 1871 was 646 (56·4 per 10,000 inhabitants), and in the year 1872 only 45 deaths were reported. From the city of Magdeburg small-pox spread to the surrounding country.

On November 25 a transport of prisoners from Metz, after having been detained for two or three weeks in the badly infected city of Minden, arrived at Quedlinburg; two days later the first case of small-pox occurred among them. A second transport, which arrived on January 31, 1871, likewise brought infected men with it. Among the civil inhabitants small-pox did not become very widespread, and only three civilians succumbed to the disease in the year 1871. In Aschersleben small-pox broke out among the prisoners in January 1871, a few days after their arrival from Mayence, and the number of cases reported in the months of January and February was only twelve. According to Guttstadt, small-pox was already prevalent in the civil population in December, when the disease was given an opportunity to spread to the surrounding country. According to the German Health Report, on the other hand, small-pox did not appear in the city until February, when the proprietor of an inn, which had been converted into a small-pox hospital, contracted it. The total number of deaths in the year 1871 amounted to 53 (31·6 per 10,000 inhabitants). On January 26 and 27, 1871, some 360 prisoners, four of them infected with small-pox, arrived at Halberstadt, having come from Mayence. The number of deaths in the city of Halberstadt in the year 1871 was 29 (11·4 per 10,000 inhabitants). Only those districts in the Governmental District of Magdeburg which bordered on the city of Magdeburg were more severely attacked; Kalbe (43·1 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants), Wanzleben (37·7), and Wollmirstedt (29·2). In addition to these the district of Wernigerode also had a very high small-pox mortality in the year 1871 (70·5 per 10,000). In those districts further away from Magdeburg—Osterburg, Salzwedel, Aschersleben, and Halberstadt—the climax of the small-pox mortality was not reached until the year 1872, whereas in the other districts it was reached in 1871.

In the Governmental District of Merseburg small-pox broke out very severely in the stronghold of Torgau, where in the last part of September and in the first part of December prisoners arrived from Strassburg and Metz, respectively; in both transports, but especially in the second, there were infected men. The first cases of the disease were reported on October 4. Of the prisoners, the maximum number of whom was 9,359, some 603 (64·4 per 1,000) contracted the disease and 128 (21·2 per cent of those who contracted it) died. The epidemic, accordingly, was unusually severe among the prisoners, and it reached its climax in January. In the German garrison, which averaged 3,943 men, there were, all told, 75 cases of the disease (19·0 per 1,000) and five deaths. Among the civil inhabitants the first persons to contract the disease in the last part of November and first part of December were a woman, who was employed as a laundress in the garrison lazaret, her sons, and a woman who had visited the place where the prisoners were confined. The epidemic did not break out until December 22, on which day a single case was reported; on the following day twelve more cases were reported. The total number of deaths was 67 (61·7 per 10,000). Very soon the infection spread throughout the entire vicinity of Torgau, which in the year 1871 had a very high small-pox mortality; by 1872 the disease had almost disappeared from the city.

In Wittenberg, which before the arrival of the prisoners was absolutely free from small-pox, a transport arrived on August 27, and on September 5 the first small-pox patients were taken to the lazaret. Among the Frenchmen the disease did not rage very extensively; of a maximum number of 9,753, only fifty-one (5·2 per cent) contracted the disease and ten succumbed to it. Of the garrison, which averaged 2,845 men, seventeen contracted the disease and two died. Among the civil inhabitants the first case of small-pox was reported on October 3; it was that of a pastor who had been serving as curate among the prisoners. This case was followed by several others, most of the victims being persons who lived in the vicinity of the pastor’s dwelling-place. The pestilence then began to spread rapidly among the civil inhabitants, finally developing into a severe epidemic. There were 768 cases reported, distributed as indicated by the following table:

October (1870) 26
November 66
December 102
January (1871) 107
February 97
March 113
April 76
May 83
June 61
July 27
August 8
September 1

Of those who contracted the disease five died in the year 1870 and 100 died in the following year (86·5 per 10,000 inhabitants). Likewise in the country surrounding Wittenberg small-pox was very widespread in the year 1871.

Among the French prisoners in Halle-on-the-Saale there were twenty-eight cases of small-pox in January and February, and at the same time a few cases of the disease were reported in the regiment that was transferred from Halle to Mülhausen. In the first part of March 1871, cases were reported among the civil inhabitants, and they constituted the beginning of a large epidemic. In the year 1871 there were 195 deaths due to the disease (37·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) and in the year 1872 there were forty-one more deaths.

Generally speaking, small-pox was rather uniformly spread throughout the Governmental District of Merseburg in the year 1871; the districts of Torgau and Wittenberg were the only ones that were attacked with particular severity. In the western part of the governmental district small-pox raged more furiously in 1872 than in 1871.

The city of Erfurt (Governmental District of Erfurt) in the year 1869 had been the scene of a small-pox epidemic, which lasted well into the following year. The last cases of the disease occurring in connexion with this epidemic were reported on August 13, 1870. To be sure, the disease revealed its presence on September 27 and 30 among the French prisoners, who had arrived on August 21, and these cases were followed by many more when a new transport of prisoners arrived from Metz; but of all the prisoners in Erfurt, the maximum number of whom was no less than 12,400, only 203 men (16·4 per cent), all told, contracted the disease, and of these only 28 died. In the garrison, which averaged 4,627 men, there were 25 cases of small-pox and no deaths. On the other hand, in December there began among the civil inhabitants an epidemic which spread rapidly and reached its climax in April 1871, with 244 cases. According to Guttstadt, the number of deaths due to small-pox was 253 (53·9 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 33 in the year 1872. The epidemic did not come to an end until June 1872.[271] In Mülhausen, prisoners from Mayence, where small-pox was prevalent, arrived in the first part of December, and some of them were already infected with the disease. On February 1 the pestilence spread to the civil population, and carried away twenty-five persons in the course of the entire year. Nordhausen was free from small-pox in the summer of 1870; but the disease was twice borne into the city, in October 1870 and in January 1871, by prisoners. The first cases among the civil inhabitants were reported in the latter month, after which they increased rapidly in number. In the year 1870 there were 233 deaths (109·5 per 10,000 inhabitants) due to the pestilence. Except in these two cities of Erfurt and Nordhausen the disease did not become very widespread in the year 1871 in any part of the Governmental District of Erfurt.

Regarding the appearance of small-pox in Brunswick, the Thuringian States, and Anhalt, only a small amount of information is available. In the city of Brunswick a German soldier, who had come from Carignan, contracted the disease in September, and in November and January six Frenchmen were taken sick; two of the latter died. In the garrison, which averaged 1,389 men, there were four cases of small-pox in March and June. According to a manuscript report of the Brunswick Bureau of Statistics, the number of deaths due to small-pox throughout the entire Duchy was 2 in the year 1870, 269 in the year 1871, and 215 in the year 1872. At Gotha a French prisoner suffering from small-pox was left behind in January, and another prisoner in the same transport contracted the disease a few days later; in February there were a few isolated cases in the garrison. At Weimar a German field-soldier suffering from small-pox arrived in February; he infected the woman who took care of him, and presently the disease broke out in the city. In Altenburg two infected sub-officers of the field-army and two Frenchmen, likewise suffering from the disease, were committed to the reserve-lazaret, and shortly afterwards a small epidemic broke out in the garrison. There were ten cases of the disease and no deaths among the Frenchmen, and in the garrison, which averaged 1,178 men, there were eleven cases and one death. Among the civil inhabitants the first to be attacked were a sick-attendant and a journeyman mason; the latter had removed the soot from a stove in a room occupied by small-pox patients.

In the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, according to a manuscript report of the local Bureau of Statistics, the number of deaths due to small-pox in the years 1860–71 was 133, in the year 1872 it was 37, and in the year 1873 it was 47. The figures for the several years before 1871 are not available. Every transport of sick soldiers from France brought small-pox patients to the city of Meiningen; five cases, the first in January, were reported in the garrison, which consisted of 1,663 men, and in the same month there were cases among the civil inhabitants. It was impossible, however, to establish a connexion between those in the garrison and those in the city.

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:

1870. 1871. 1872.
January 69 158
February 107 74
March 163 47
April 226 16
May 364 17
June 2 503 4
July 2 554 2
August 6 578 2
September 5 373 1
October 10 311 1
November 24 229
December 34 170 1
——— ————— ———
Entire year 83 3,647 323
Per 10,000 inhabitants 3·6 154·4 9·5

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:

_Patients._ _Deaths._
1870 24 1
1871 315 36
1872 99 15

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]

_Bremen—City._ _Rest of State._
1871 45 9
1872 20 21
1873 3

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:

November (1870) 2
December 8
January (1871) 0
February 13
March 30
April 48
May 91
June 84
July 43
August 9
September 5
October 1

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:

1871. 1872.
Arnsberg 12·7 11·4
Meschede 6·5 4·3
Brilon 10·0 23·1
Lippstadt 2·9 9·8
Soest 9·6 26·0
Hamm 38·1 30·0
Dortmund 55·3 38·4
Bochum 123·1 71·8
Hagen 13·7 54·2
Iserlohn 4·3 16·7
Altena 18·5 12·7
Olpe 18·8 9·4
Siegen 9·2 7·4
Wittgenstein 10·1 11·6

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:

1871. 1872.
Cleve 4·8 1·5
Geldern 7·8 0·8
Mörs 8·4 8·8
Kempen 7·3 13·3
Gladbach 1·6 5·5
Grevenbroich 1·8 2·3
Neuss 9·3 4·3
Crefeld 54·7 33·7

The districts on the right side of the Rhine:

1871. 1872.
Rees 23·5 4·6
Duisburg 100·7 10·2
Essen 52·9 37·0
Düsseldorf 56·2 3·5
Elberfeld (city) 47·5 44·0
Barmen 24·8 49·1
Mettmann 31·3 36·7
Lennep 3·3 31·4
Solingen 5·1 36·3

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):

_Patients._ _Deaths._
September (1870) 24 3
October 65 18
November 80 15
December 97 27
January (1871) 194 53
February 336 79
March 434 87
April 510 71
May 318 50
June 159 34
July 75 13
August 35 10
September 16 3
October 66 5
November 34 9
December 7 2

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.