In the great Irish famine of 1846-49, comparatively little is heard of smallpox. It would appear to have been less diffused through the country than in former famines, such as that of 1817-18, or those of the first part of the 18th century, just in proportion as the vagrancy of famine-times was checked by the establishment of workhouses. In the workhouses and auxiliary workhouses during the ten years 1841-51, smallpox is credited with 5016 deaths, while measles has 8943, fever 34,644, dysentery 50,019, diarrhoea 20,507, and Asiatic cholera 6716. Registration began in Ireland in 1864, and showed little smallpox for the first few years. The next great epidemic, of 1871-72, showed the incidence upon the large towns, and the comparative immunity of the country population, even more strikingly than in England. In a total mortality of 3913 during the two years of 1871 and 1872, the three counties of Dublin, Cork and Antrim had the following enormous share, which fell mostly to the three cities of Dublin, Cork and Belfast:
| Dublin Co. | 1825 | ||
| Cork Co. | 1070 | ||
| Antrim | 510 | ||
| 3405 | deaths in 3913 for all Ireland. | ||
In that epidemic the whole province of Connaught had only 25 deaths from smallpox; but a subsequent visitation, a few years after, fell mainly upon Connaught.
The epidemic which began in Scotland in 1871 was distributed over a somewhat longer period than the corresponding outbreak in England; but the bulk of it fell in the two years 1871 and 1872. The total of 3890 deaths in those two years was distributed as follows:
| Eight largest towns | 2441 | |
| Next largest towns | 259 | |
| Small town districts | 574 | |
| Mainland rural districts | 586 | |
| Insular rural districts | 30 | |
| 3890 | ||
Glasgow had a considerably smaller relative share than Edinburgh, and altogether a much lighter incidence of the disease than in the years 1835-52, for which the figures have been given above (pp. 600-1). In the following table of the annual deaths in Scotland from the beginning of registration, the four other infective diseases of childhood included along with smallpox show by comparison the remarkable decline of smallpox since 1874, scarlatina being the only other infection of childhood which has become greatly less common or less fatal.
Scotland. Deaths by Smallpox, Measles, Scarlatina, Diphtheria and Whooping-Cough, from the beginning of Registration.
| Smallpox | Measles | Scarlatina | Diphtheria | Whooping-Cough | ||||||
| 1855 | 1209 | 1180 | 2138 | — | 1903 | |||||
| 1856 | 1306 | 1033 | 3011 | — | 2331 | |||||
| 1857 | 845 | 1028 | 2235 | 76 | 1539 | |||||
| 1858 | 332 | 1538 | 2671 | 294 | 1963 | |||||
| 1859 | 682 | 975 | 3614 | 415 | 2660 | |||||
| 1860 | 1495 | 1587 | 2927 | 480 | 1812 | |||||
| 1861 | 766 | 971 | 1764 | 681 | 2204 | |||||
| 1862 | 426 | 1404 | 1281 | 997 | 2799 | |||||
| 1863 | 1646 | 2212 | 3413 | 1745 | 1649 | |||||
| 1864 | 1741 | 1102 | 3411 | 1740 | 1993 | |||||
| 1865 | 383 | 1195 | 2244 | 995 | 2318 | |||||
| 1866 | 200 | 1038 | 2706 | 685 | 1860 | |||||
| 1867 | 100 | 1341 | 2253 | 610 | 1728 | |||||
| 1868 | 15 | 1149 | 3141 | 749 | 2490 | |||||
| 1869 | 64 | 1670 | 4680 | 663 | 2461 | |||||
| 1870 | 114 | 834 | 4356 | 630 | 1783 | |||||
| 1871 | 1442 | 2057 | 2586 | 880 | 1504 | |||||
| 1872 | 2448 | 925 | 2101 | 1045 | 2850 | |||||
| 1873 | 1126 | 1450 | 2227 | 1203 | 1598 | |||||
| 1874 | 1246 | 1103 | 6321 | 1163 | 1690 | |||||
| 1875 | 76 | 1022 | 4720 | 867 | 2431 | |||||
| 1876 | 39 | 1241 | 2364 | 861 | 2250 | |||||
| 1877 | 38 | 1019 | 1374 | 956 | 1571 | |||||
| 1878 | 4 | 1372 | 1870 | 1033 | 2788 | |||||
| 1879 | 8 | 769 | 1592 | 862 | 2483 | |||||
| 1880 | 10 | 1427 | 2165 | 838 | 2641 | |||||
| 1881 | 19 | 1012 | 1573 | 816 | 1620 | |||||
| 1882 | 3 | 1289 | 1583 | 961 | 2108 | |||||
| 1883 | 11 | 1629 | 1336 | 747 | 2968 | |||||
| 1884 | 14 | 1440 | 1266 | 830 | 2511 | |||||
| 1885 | 39 | 1426 | 944 | 688 | 2157 | |||||
| 1886 | 24 | 681 | 1058 | 583 | 1882 | |||||
| 1887 | 17 | 1598 | 1179 | 805 | 3212 | |||||
| 1888 | 3 | 1406 | 732 | 872 | 1722 | |||||
| 1889 | 8 | 1948 | 701 | 968 | 2268 | |||||
| 1890 | 0 | 2509 | 739 | 1018 | 3039 | |||||
| 1891 | 0 | 1775 | 736 | 830 | 2437 |