The small-pox mortality varied greatly in the different Prussian Governmental Districts; particularly noteworthy is the fact that it was considerably higher in the eastern provinces, especially in the year 1872, than in the western provinces, notwithstanding the fact that the latter were exposed to the infection much sooner and much more frequently in consequence of the arrival and passing through of French prisoners. The only plausible explanation of this is the fact that the inhabitants of eastern Prussia were not so thoroughly vaccinated as those in the west; this, however, was not because the anti-vaccinationists were more influential in the east, but because the eastern provinces had fewer physicians than the western provinces, where medical advice and help were far more accessible, and where the population was more enlightened. The effect of vaccination is clearly revealed in those Governmental Districts in the west which introduced compulsory vaccination before they were incorporated into Prussia; Schleswig-Holstein did this in 1811, Hanover in 1821, the Governmental District of Wiesbaden in 1820, and the Governmental District of Cassel in 1828. All these parts of the country had fewer cases of small-pox. The Governmental Districts in which large military prisons were located, and those in which, owing to a higher industrial development, there was more intercourse of all kinds, were attacked earlier by small-pox than the others. Of the western provinces only the two highly industrial districts of Arnsberg and Düsseldorf, and the district of Trèves, were very severely attacked. The living conditions among the working people were not so good at that time as they are to-day, and the close quarters must necessarily have favoured the dissemination of small-pox; furthermore, the constant moving about of the working inhabitants, many of whom did not live where they were employed, helped to spread it. Thus it was observed in the vicinity of Leipzig, that the villages inhabited by working people were much more severely attacked by small-pox than those inhabited by farmers, with their stationary and settled population. The high figures in the case of the Governmental District of Trèves may be explained by the fact that its location made it necessary for a large proportion of the French prisoners that were taken into Prussia to pass through it. The number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the various Governmental Districts of Prussia is indicated by the following table (the districts which introduced compulsory vaccination in the year 1870 are designated with an asterisk):
| Governmental District. | 1870. | 1871. | 1872. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Königsberg | 3·5 | 24·5 | 37·8 |
| Gumbinnen | 4·1 | 9·7 | 40·0 |
| Danzig | 2·8 | 42·4 | 67·6 |
| Marienwerder | 3·7 | 17·7 | 76·2 |
| Berlin | 2·1 | 63·1 | 31·4 |
| Potsdam | 1·8 | 25·8 | 28·7 |
| Frankfurt | 0·1 | 18·6 | 40·0 |
| Stettin | 1·6 | 29·9 | 21·4 |
| Köslin | 2·2 | 12·2 | 36·7 |
| Stralsund | 0·2 | 34·0 | 3·9 |
| Posen | 6·0 | 48·3 | 58·0 |
| Bromberg | 5·3 | 24·1 | 86·6 |
| Breslau | 3·1 | 27·5 | 33·6 |
| Oppeln | 1·7 | 22·5 | 42·1 |
| Liegnitz | 0·5 | 11·2 | 16·8 |
| Magdeburg | 0·6 | 27·5 | 16·3 |
| Merseburg | 1·0 | 28·8 | 20·2 |
| Erfurt | 1·4 | 25·3 | 14·4 |
| Schleswig-Holstein* | 0·2 | 18·0 | 5·0 |
| Hanover* | 0·3 | 5·3 | 8·8 |
| Hildesheim* | 0·1 | 13·8 | 19·6 |
| Lüneburg* | 0·2 | 7·8 | 6·5 |
| Stade* | 1·3 | 5·6 | 4·9 |
| Osnabrück* | 0·3 | 6·0 | 0·8 |
| Aurich* | 0·0 | 5·4 | 1·1 |
| Münster | 0·3 | 11·6 | 10·8 |
| Minden | 0·2 | 13·4 | 8·9 |
| Arnsberg | 0·4 | 39·1 | 33·8 |
| Cassel* | 0·5 | 9·0 | 6·2 |
| Wiesbaden* | 1·7 | 9·7 | 2·5 |
| Coblenz | 1·2 | 22·8 | 6·6 |
| Düsseldorf | 0·3 | 32·9 | 20·5 |
| Cologne | 1·4 | 14·6 | 2·8 |
| Trèves | 2·5 | 34·0 | 3·1 |
| Aix-la-Chapelle | 0·8 | 14·5 | 7·8 |
| Hohenzollern | 1·7 | 19·9 |
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 | ||