The proximity of the scene of the war in January and February 1813 caused typhus fever to break out in the Swiss Cantons lying close to the French border; for example, in the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Neuenburg, Solothurn, and Waadt. The number of deaths in these cantons was:[[177]]

Year.Basel-Stadt.Basel-Land.Neuenburg.Solothurn.Waadt.
18124428671,0411,3493,705
18134257481,0141,0723,186
18147211,6791,3351,8443,475
18154798121,2201,2403,267
18163557101,234 3,720

According to A. Burckhardt,[[178]] lazaret-fever broke out in Basel with extraordinary fury when the Allies passed through that city; it raged particularly among the foreign soldiers, but also attacked the attendants in the hospitals and the civil inhabitants. The number of deaths caused by it is unknown.

6. Typhus Fever in Austria in the Years 1813–14.[[179]]

The country in Austria which was most exposed to the ravages of the epidemic of typhus fever was Bohemia, along whose borders the war was for a long time carried on. As early as February 1813, ‘nerve-fever’, accompanied by petechiae, was borne by Bavarian and Prussian troops into the district of Königgrätz, but thanks to energetic and strict measures of precaution, it did not become very widespread. The principal outbreak of the epidemic in Bohemia took place in the autumn of the year 1813. The number of typhus-fever patients taken into the Prague hospital in September 1813 was 39, in October 77, in November 196, and in December 287.[[180]] The region along the Saxon border suffered the most: e.g. the districts of Leitmeritz, Saaz, Rakonitz, and Elbogen. In the Leitmeritz district typhus appeared in August, and became more severe in September and October; the places along the military road leading from Dresden to Prague were particularly hard hit. The epidemic lasted until April. In the near-by Kaurzim district sick and wounded soldiers of all nations arrived, after the battles of Pirna, Dresden, and Kulm, causing a virulent epidemic to break out everywhere; in many places all the inhabitants contracted it. In the latter part of the year, when the pestilence seemed to have abated a little, it broke out anew when the French garrison was being taken from Dresden to its place of detention; in fourteen days 2,422 persons in sixty places contracted the disease, which disappeared in May. Typhus fever had spread over 103 localities, all told, in that region, and of 8,066 people who contracted it, 751 succumbed. In the Saaz district typhus broke out in the last part of October 1813, and carried away large numbers of people; it raged all along the military road in the vicinity of the scene of the war. The highest mortality was in the month of December, and in May the pestilence disappeared. In the Rakonitz district entire communities lay sick in the first part of the year, but in April no new cases of the disease occurred. In the Elbogen district typhus fever broke out in September 1813 in the city of Eger, in consequence of the arrival of French prisoners and fugitives; the epidemic soon spread over the entire district, and lasted until March 1814.

The rest of Bohemia suffered less severely from typhus fever in the winter of 1813–14. In the Beraun district, lying to the south-west of Prague, it began in October 1813, when the homes of the citizens became crowded with convalescing soldiers; the epidemic came to an end in March 1814. The number of people who contracted the disease was 3,807, while the number who succumbed was 296. The adjacent districts of Pilsen and Kattau were likewise attacked; in the Pilsen district typhus fever broke out in October 1813, in consequence of the arrival of French prisoners; a number of places were infected by them, so that in November and December it developed into an epidemic, which lasted until April. Of 1,185 people who contracted the disease, 237 died. In the Kattau district 645 contracted the disease and 132 succumbed.

In the eastern part of the country the districts of Tabor and Czaslau were severely attacked. ‘In the Tabor district’, we read in the above-mentioned report,[[181]] ‘there appeared in the month of August at Neuhaus, where a field-hospital had been erected, several biliary-mucous nerve-fevers, which broke out in numerous places along the road to Prague, soon spread to the Tabor district, and became epidemic. They quickly revealed their presence in all places where sick soldiers passed the night, or where the natives took part in the transportation of sick soldiers.’ The climax of the epidemic was in January, and in the middle of May it disappeared; of 4,267 people who contracted the disease, 448 succumbed. In the Czaslau district, adjacent to the Tabor district on the north, the disease was disseminated in November 1813 by transports of prisoners and troops, by the quartering of convalescents in the homes of peasants, and by peasants who helped to transport sick soldiers. On December 16, 1813, no less than 4,313 civilians in thirteen places were suffering from typhus fever. The highest mortality prevailed in the vicinity of the hospitals; the epidemic disappeared with the arrival of spring.

Typhus fever was also conveyed into various parts of Moravia,[[182]] partly by Austrian troops, and partly by French prisoners; in the districts of Brünn, Iglau, Olmütz, and Teschen it broke out in numerous places. In twelve communities in these districts, having a combined population of 28,267, some 2,126 people contracted the disease between December 1813 and the summer of 1814, and 207 persons succumbed. In March the epidemic disappeared almost everywhere. According to the figures compiled by J. Hain,[[183]] the number of deaths in Moravia and Austrian-Silesia together was:

July (1813)3,818
August3,893
September3,888
October4,059
November4,457
December5,202
January (1814)8,280
February7,249
March7,756
April5,464
May5,541
June4,147

In Lower Austria typhus fever also broke out, particularly in Vienna; the number of deaths there was: