Since mortality statistics existed in only a few of the Northern States at that time, and the deaths for the year in question were included merely incidentally in the census taken every ten years, it is impossible to adduce any figures relating to the spreading of infectious diseases from the army to the civil population. But certain it is that this happened to a great extent in the regions where the fighting took place. In the case of two States, Massachusetts and Connecticut, mortality statistics are available; in both we find an increased death-rate during the Civil War. The figures, which do not include the still-births, are as follows:
| Year. | Connecticut. | Massachusetts. |
|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 16·3 | 18·7 |
| 1861 | 16·5 | 19·5 |
| 1862 | 18·0 | 18·5 |
| 1863 | 18·0 | 22·1 |
| 1864 | 19·0 | 22·8 |
| 1865 | 16·0 | 20·6 |
| 1866 | 15·0 | 18·1 |
| 1867 | 14·3 | 17·0 |
In the case of Massachusetts, moreover, we have statistics relating to the cause of death; these statistics show a considerable increase in deaths due to typhoid fever, small-pox, and dysentery; the mortality of scarlet fever was also very high there during the war-years, but this fact was in no way connected with the war. The number of people who contracted the above-mentioned diseases in Massachusetts was:[[224]]
| Year. | Typhoid Fever. | Small-pox. | Dysentery. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 937 | 334 | 441 |
| 1861 | 989 | 33 | 532 |
| 1862 | 1,135 | 40 | 479 |
| 1863 | 1,442 | 42 | 1,156 |
| 1864 | 1,344 | 242 | 1,186 |
| 1865 | 1,694 | 221 | 1,548 |
| 1866 | 1,091 | 141 | 949 |
| 1867 | 965 | 196 | 658 |
4. The Italian War of 1859[[225]]
The Italian War of 1859, which the French and Piedmontese together waged against Austria in Upper Italy, was not attended by any severe pestilences, probably because it was terminated in a comparatively short time, and the number of troops engaged was not very large. To be sure, typhoid fever and dysentery carried away many men on both sides, while an unusually large number of soldiers contracted malaria. Those fevers which were called ‘Fièvres rémittentes épidémiques d’Italie’, and which, notwithstanding their frequent occurrence, caused only a few deaths, according to Niedner were for the most part malaria, and not relapsing fever. The Austrian army seems to have lost more men in consequence of pestilences than the French army. Regarding the spreading of the pestilences on a large scale from the armies to the civil population we have no information.
5. The Danish War of 1864
In the war of 1864, which Austria and Prussia waged against Denmark, no epidemics of wide extent occurred. ‘The small number of men engaged,’ says Knaak,[[226]] ‘the not particularly unfavourable external conditions, the constant communication between the fighting armies and their home-countries, and the non-appearance of large epidemics, all helped to render the health-conditions of the war favourable.’ The total loss sustained by the Prussian army, which reached a maximum size of 63,500 men, amounted to 1,048 men; of these 738 died in battle, in consequence of wounds, &c., 310 succumbed to diseases, 193 of the latter to typhoid fever. Statements regarding the number of deaths in the Austrian army, which amounted to 25,000 men, are not available. The Danish army, which numbered 54,000 men, lost 1,446 in consequence of wounds, &c., and 820 in consequence of diseases.[[227]]
6. The German War of 1866
As regards sanitation the German War of 1866 acquired importance through the appearance of cholera on the scene of the fighting. None of the other infectious diseases developed very extensively during this war; of the Prussian army, which numbered some 280,000 men, only 379, all told, succumbed to typhoid fever, and dysentery did not appear at all. A rather mild epidemic of small-pox spread throughout a considerable part of Germany in the year 1865, and lasted until the year 1866; whether or not the war helped the disease to spread, which is not unlikely, we cannot state with certainty owing to a lack of bases of comparison. The German troops were well vaccinated, and the number who contracted the disease was no larger during the war than in times of peace. It is undoubtedly true, however, that the war exerted an unwholesome influence upon the dissemination of cholera throughout Germany and Austria.[[228]] Cholera had revealed its presence in Germany for the first time in the year 1865; it broke out in Altenburg, during its fourth passage through Europe, having been borne thither from Odessa. In the course of the year it broke out, in a comparatively mild form, in many places in Saxony. In the year 1866 it raged very extensively and furiously in the Rhine province and in Westphalia, whither it was borne from Luxemburg; in May cases of the disease occurred in several seaport towns of Pomerania (Swinemünde, Stettin, Cammin, &c.), and in June it broke out in Hamburg, Berlin, Posen, Silesia, East and West Prussia, and in the kingdom of Saxony.[[229]] Thus it came about that some of the troops enlisted came from infected parts of Silesia and Saxony, and the result was that individual cases of cholera began to occur in the Prussian army.