In the province of Hanover, small-pox did not become very widespread in the years 1871 and 1872, thanks to the introduction of compulsory vaccination; this is evident from one of the tables reproduced above. In the year 1871 the districts of Osterode and Harburg had the highest figures, 32·4 and 18·7 deaths respectively per 10,000 inhabitants, and in the following year Osterode had 47·4 and Einbeck was second with 24·6. In the city of Hanover the cases of the disease in the garrison were few and far between; the first cases among the prisoners were reported in August; their maximum number was 2,299, and fifty-six of them contracted the disease and three died. In the city seventy-one persons succumbed to the disease in the year 1871, and eighty-nine persons in the year 1872 (8·1 and 10·2, respectively, per 10,000 inhabitants). In Hildesheim, cases of the disease, which had been brought there from France, were reported in March 1871; seven soldiers in the garrison were taken sick. In Göttingen (Governmental District of Hildesheim) persons who had contracted the disease in France were taken to the lazaret in March 1871; whether or not this was responsible for the communication of the disease to the civil inhabitants, among whom a severe epidemic had never before raged, cannot be ascertained. At Einbeck (Governmental District of Hildesheim) several small-pox convalescents belonging to the field-army arrived in February 1871. In Osnabrück a soldier belonging to the field-army contracted the disease in December. In Papenburg (Governmental District of Osnabrück) the dépôt where the prisoners were confined was very severely attacked; of 993 prisoners, sixty-three contracted the disease and two died. In Lingen (Governmental District of Osnabrück) there was a rather large number of Frenchmen suffering from small-pox—fifty-three, all told, of whom three died. In Stade thirty-two out of 2,284 prisoners contracted the disease in January and February, and five of them died.

In Bremen the epidemic of small-pox did not become very widespread. According to a report issued by the local Bureau of Statistics, there were only twenty-six cases of the disease there in the year 1870 and no deaths; in the following years the number of deaths was as follows:[[273]]

Bremen—City.Rest of State.
1871459
18722021
18733

In the case of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg the number of deaths due to small-pox is unknown. In the city of Oldenburg three French prisoners (two in October and one in November) contracted small-pox, and one case of the disease was reported in the garrison in March. Regarding the appearance of small-pox among the civil inhabitants no information is available.

The governmental districts of Münster and Minden (Province of Westphalia) were only moderately afflicted by small-pox in the years 1870–2. According to Guttstadt, a few cases of the disease were reported in the city of Münster in May 1869, and these were followed by seven more in July 1870. After that no cases were reported until November 9, 1870, when a pastor, who had been ministering to the prisoners in Lingen, contracted the disease; another pastor fared in the same way. These were followed by eight more cases in two buildings in Münster itself, and another two in the community of Überwasser, which bordered on the city of Münster. In the latter part of the year 1870 no cases were reported in the garrison. In the latter part of January 1871 some 3,000 prisoners were brought from Wesel, which was badly infected with the disease, to Münster, and there four of them were immediately taken sick. This was the beginning of a rather extensive epidemic among the prisoners, 143 of whom contracted the disease and thirteen died; the maximum number of cases (107) was reported in February. In the garrison, which numbered 3,910 men, a small number of cases was reported from February on; of twenty-one cases reported, one resulted fatally. In the same month a small epidemic raged among the civil inhabitants, reaching its climax in May. The following table indicates the number of people who contracted the disease:

November (1870)2
December8
January (1871)0
February13
March30
April48
May91
June84
July43
August9
September5
October1

The number of deaths in the year 1871 was sixty-seven (26·9 per 10,000 inhabitants), and in the year 1872 it was twenty-two; most of the cases occurred in the quarters of the city known as Jüdefeld and Lamberti, on account of the proximity of the prison along the Buddenturm. In the surrounding communities the epidemic reached its climax in July, and after that began to abate rapidly. The only other region in the Governmental District of Münster in which small-pox made its appearance was Recklinghausen, which borders on the Rhenish-Westphalian coal-fields, whence the infection doubtless came; in Recklinghausen there were 28·8 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the year 1871, and 46·4 per 10,000 in the year 1872.

In the Governmental District of Minden only the city and vicinity of Minden were severely attacked; before the war began they were free from small-pox. On September 10 the first prisoners arrived, and among them cases of small-pox had already been observed in the first part of that month; in the course of the next eight days more cases were reported, and of a total number of 5,071 prisoners 98 contracted the disease and 13 succumbed to it. In the garrison, which numbered 5,071 men, one case was reported in October, four in December, and fifty-two in the following months; only two cases terminated fatally. The first case among the civil inhabitants was reported on November 5; the victim was a laundress who had done washing for the prisoners. This constituted the beginning of an epidemic in which 651 persons contracted the disease and 114 succumbed to it; the population of the city was 16,862. The epidemic spread to the surrounding localities, presumably because the woollen blankets which the patients had used were sold there. Throughout the entire district of Minden 391 persons (51·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871, whereas in the following year only 34 deaths were reported, all told.

In the Governmental District of Arnsberg the districts of Dortmund and Bochum, which belonged to the Rhenish-Westphalian coal region, and were even at that time densely populated, were severely attacked by small-pox; the districts of Hamm and Hagen, which bordered on the latter, were likewise very hard hit. The following table indicates the number of persons per 10,000 inhabitants that succumbed to small-pox in the districts mentioned:

1871.1872.
Arnsberg12·711·4
Meschede6·54·3
Brilon10·023·1
Lippstadt2·99·8
Soest9·626·0
Hamm38·130·0
Dortmund55·338·4
Bochum123·171·8
Hagen13·754·2
Iserlohn4·316·7
Altena18·512·7
Olpe18·89·4
Siegen9·27·4
Wittgenstein10·111·6