The number of French prisoners taken to Germany in the month of July 1870 was small. Of the sixteen immobiles who contracted the disease during that month, nine belonged to the Ninth Army Corps, most of them having been infected inland before the outbreak of the war. That the month of July did not constitute the starting-point of the subsequent epidemic is evident from the fact that the prevalence of the disease decreased in August, as well as from countless individual observations.
4. The Epidemic of Small-pox in the Civil Population of Germany in 1871–2
In the summer of 1870 Germany was almost free from small-pox. Later on, thousands of French prisoners, almost all of them hailing from infected localities, were within a short time scattered throughout the entire German Empire, and since the inhabitants of many parts of the country, as stated above, were very insufficiently vaccinated, it was inevitable that epidemics of small-pox should break out everywhere. The disease was disseminated in several ways: by prisoners who had contracted it on their way to Germany, or who had to be transported from an infected to an uninfected locality, by persons into whose systems the infection had entered but had not yet revealed its presence, and by uninfected persons who had come in contact with infected persons; numerous persons, moreover, contracted the disease by handling the clothing, blankets, and other effects of small-pox patients.
‘The dissemination of the disease,’ says the German Health Report,[[264]] ‘which broke out simultaneously in various parts of Germany, was helped along in numerous ways. From the lazarets and from the prisons it was communicated by nurses and guards, and by working men and tradesmen, to the civil population and to the local garrison, and from there it spread to the surrounding country. It was conveyed from place to place, often considerable distances, by the moving population itself, not infrequently by marching troops, and particularly by the removal of prisoners from one place of detention to another; the latter measure had to be adopted in order to make room for the fresh transports of prisoners that were constantly arriving, many of them in such an exhausted condition that it was necessary to spare them the long and trying journey to the far East. Thus the prisons at Mayence, Coblenz, Wesel, Minden, &c. became the foci from which the disease was transplanted into hitherto uninfected places.’
The result was that there broke out in Germany an epidemic of small-pox which raged more furiously and extensively than any other epidemic in the course of the nineteenth century. Whereas among the prisoners-of-war and among the immobile German troops (who were particularly exposed to the infection) the disease reached its climax as early as January 1871, among the civil inhabitants of the country this climax did not come until later in the year; in the more out-of-the-way regions, moreover, where there was less intercourse, the height of the epidemic was not reached until the year 1872.
(a) The Dissemination of Small-pox in Prussia and in the smaller North German States
After the prevalence of small-pox in Prussia had again increased somewhat in the years 1864–7, in the following years the number of cases of the disease grew steadily smaller, so that around the middle of the year 1870 the country was practically free from it. Its prevalence again increased in the first months of the year 1871. The following table indicates the number of deaths caused by the disease in Prussia in the course of twelve years:
| Total no. deaths. | Deaths per 10,000 inhabitants. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1862 | 3,894 | 2·1 |
| 1863 | 6,250 | 3·4 |
| 1864 | 8,904 | 4·6 |
| 1865 | 8,403 | 4·4 |
| 1866 | 11,937 | 6·2 |
| 1867 | 8,500 | 4·3 |
| 1868 | 4,510 | 1·8 |
| 1869 | 4,655 | 1·9 |
| 1870 | 4,200 | 1·7 |
| 1871 | 59,839 | 24·3 |
| 1872 | 66,660[[265]] | 26·9 |
| 1873 | 8,932 | 3·6 |
In the year 1874 only one person per 10,000 inhabitants succumbed to the disease. Among the French prisoners small-pox usually broke out very soon after their arrival at their place of detention, while among the inhabitants of the places in which the prisons were located it usually did not make its appearance until several months later. Guttstadt,[[266]] in his excellent work on the Epidemic of Small-pox in Prussia in the Years 1870–1, has compiled a table of statistics indicating in a number of places when the disease first made its appearance among the prisoners and among the civil inhabitants. We reproduce this table below, with a few small alterations. In some of the places mentioned there was no military prison; only prisoners suffering from small-pox were taken to them, usually resulting in an epidemic of the disease among the civil inhabitants. The table clearly indicates the connexion between the small-pox epidemics among the civil inhabitants and the outbreaks of the disease among the prisoners; regarding the manner of dissemination in the case of the individual epidemics we shall have more to say further on.
| The Appearance of Small-pox among Prisoners-of-War and among the Civil Inhabitants in the German Cities in the years 1870–1 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cities. | French Prisoners. | Civil Inhabitants. | ||||||
| First arrival of infected persons. | Maximum no. | First Case. | No. Patients. | First Outbreak. | No. Deaths (1870). | No. Deaths (1871). | ||
| 1. | East Prussia | |||||||
| Königsberg | Aug. 15 | 7,324 | Aug. 15 | 221 | Aug. (end) | 74 | 558 | |
| 2. | West Prussia | |||||||
| Danzig | Aug. 25 | 9,189 | Aug. 28 | 188 | Sep. 16 | 5 | 709 | |
| Graudenz | Aug. 5 | 1,437 | Aug. 28 | 9 | Fall | 0 | 11 | |
| Thorn | Aug. 21 | 2,001 | Aug. 27 | 11 | Fall | 8 | 147 | |
| 3. | Brandenburg | |||||||
| Berlin | Aug. 20 | 24 | Nov. | 170 | 5,212 | |||
| Frankfurt-o.-t.-O. | 756 | Nov. 12 | 8 | Jan. | 3 | 117 | ||
| Küstrin | Aug. 7 | 2,204 | Aug. 17 | 9 | End (1870) | 1 | 32 | |
| Landsberg-o.-t.-W. | Nov. | 133 | Nov. | 1 | Nov. 20 | 0 | 97 | |
| 4. | Pomerania | |||||||
| Colberg | Nov. 4 | 3,246 | Nov. 14 | 175 | Jan. 7 | 0 | 27 | |
| Greifswald | Oct. 18 | 3 | Dec. 13 | 1 | 109 | |||
| Schivelbein | Jan. 24 | 603 | Jan. 26 | 24 | Feb. 20 | 0 | 43 | |
| Stettin | Aug. 12 | 21,000 | Aug. 22 | 1,303 | Dec. | 13 | 422 | |
| Stralsund | Dec. 4 | 2,991 | Dec. 9 | 234 | Jan. 7 | 0 | 366 | |
| Stolp | Jan. | 1,376 | Feb. 3 | 5 | Aug. (1871) | 0 | 16 | |
| 5. | Posen | |||||||
| Bromberg | - | Dec. 15 | 14 | Feb. 10 | 0 | 280 | ||
| Posen | Oct. 4 | 10,303 | Sep. | 191 | Feb. | 79 | 466 | |
| Schneidemühl | Nov. | 940 | Jan. | 5 | Jan. | 0 | 40 | |
| 6. | Silesia | |||||||
| Breslau | Nov. | 4 | 28 | 742 | ||||
| Glatz | Oct. 12 | 2,284 | Oct. 6 | 96 | Feb. | 2 | 38 | |
| Glogau | Sep. 1 | 13,621 | Sep. 16 | 1,198 | Oct. 7 | 10 | 114 | |
| Görlitz | 326 | Nov. | 5 | Jan. | 0 | 164 | ||
| Oppeln | Nov. 6 | 1,027 | Jan. | 23 | Jan. | 0 | 38 | |
| Schweidnitz | Jan. 28 | 1,821 | Jan. | 75 | March | 0 | 52 | |
| 7. | Saxony | |||||||
| Aschersleben | Dec. 2 | 1,618 | Jan. | 12 | Dec. | 0 | 53 | |
| Erfurt | Sep. 12 | 12,400 | Sep. 14 | 203 | Dec. | 18 | 235 | |
| Halberstadt | Jan. | 619 | Jan. 28 | 6 | Feb. | 0 | 29 | |
| Halle-o.-t.-S. | Nov. 1 | 28 | March | 0 | 195 | |||
| Magdeburg | Aug. 30 | 25,450 | Sep. 15 | 1,902 | Nov. 18 | 22 | 646 | |
| Mülhausen | Dec. | 1,065 | Dec. (early) | 57 | Feb. 1 | 4 | 25 | |
| Nordhausen | Sep. | 8 | Jan. | 0 | 233 | |||
| Quedlinburg | 927 | Nov. 27 | 29 | Nov. | 1 | 3 | ||
| Torgau | Sept. (end) | 9,359 | Oct. 4 | 603 | Nov. | 0 | 67 | |
| Wittenberg | Aug. 27 | 9,723 | Sep. 5 | 51 | Oct. 3 | 5 | 100 | |
| 8. | Schleswig-Holstein | |||||||
| Lockstedt | 5,000 | Oct. | 47 | End 1870 | ||||
| Rendsburg | Nov. | 2,590 | Nov. 26 | 44 | End 1870 | 0 | 114 | |
| Schleswig | Dec. 3 | 1,570 | Dec. 13 | 17 | End 1870 | 10 | 38 | |
| 9. | Hanover | |||||||
| Stade | 2,284 | Jan. 28 | 32 | 1871 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 10. | Westphalia | |||||||
| Hamm | Oct. | 12 | Nov. 22 | 9 | 114 | |||
| Minden | Sep. 10 | 5,071 | Sep. | 98 | Nov. 2 | 5 | 114 | |
| Münster | Jan. (end) | 2,709 | Jan. (end) | 143 | Feb. 12 | 2 | 67 | |
| 11. | Hesse-Nassau | |||||||
| Cassel | Nov. | 13 | Nov. | 6 | 99 | |||
| Frankfurt | Dec. | 8 | Jan. | 23 | 125 | |||
| 12. | Rhine Province | |||||||
| Düsseldorf | 981 | Aug. 15 | 13 | Oct. (1870) | 6 | 524 | ||
| Coblenz | Sep. 15 | 15,011 | Sep. 23 | 571 | Nov. 2 | 0 | 81 | |
| Cologne | Sep. 1 | 13,774 | Sep. 1 | 175 | Sep. 12 | 65 | 418 | |
| Wesel | Sep. 9 | 16,299 | Sep. 20 | 1,042 | Nov. | 9 | 84 | |
| The book contains a survey of the small-pox mortality in Prussia in the year 1871 according to Governmental Districts and Communities. The figures for the year 1872 have not been published; they were placed at my disposal, in manuscript form, by the Royal Prussian Bureau of Statistics. | ||||||||