In the city of Bochum alone 698 persons (329·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871; almost one-half of the deaths that year were caused by small-pox. The city of Dortmund itself was less severely attacked in the year 1871 than the country surrounding it; in the city alone 96 persons (21·5 per 10,000) died of the disease, whereas in the district of Dortmund, excluding the city, there were 661 deaths (71·4 per 10,000). The near-by city of Hamm was very severely attacked; 114 persons (67·3 per 10,000) succumbed there in the year 1871, whereas the total number of deaths in the rest of the district amounted to 113 (26·5 per 10,000). According to Guttstadt, a prisoner contracted the disease there on November 2 and subsequently died. The first cases among the civil inhabitants were reported on November 22; the victims were an occupant of a public-house situated near the lazaret, and a Catholic priest who had visited the patients.
In the Rhine Province the districts of the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial centre belonging to the Governmental District of Düsseldorf also suffered severely from small-pox: e.g. the districts of Crefeld, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Mettmann, Elberfeld, and Barmen; later on, in the year 1872, the districts of Lennep and Solingen were also severely attacked. The districts in the Governmental District of Düsseldorf lying on the left side of the Rhine were all, with the exception of Crefeld, mildly attacked. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the various districts mentioned:
The districts on the left side of the Rhine:
| 1871. | 1872. | |
|---|---|---|
| Cleve | 4·8 | 1·5 |
| Geldern | 7·8 | 0·8 |
| Mörs | 8·4 | 8·8 |
| Kempen | 7·3 | 13·3 |
| Gladbach | 1·6 | 5·5 |
| Grevenbroich | 1·8 | 2·3 |
| Neuss | 9·3 | 4·3 |
| Crefeld | 54·7 | 33·7 |
The districts on the right side of the Rhine:
| 1871. | 1872. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rees | 23·5 | 4·6 |
| Duisburg | 100·7 | 10·2 |
| Essen | 52·9 | 37·0 |
| Düsseldorf | 56·2 | 3·5 |
| Elberfeld (city) | 47·5 | 44·0 |
| Barmen | 24·8 | 49·1 |
| Mettmann | 31·3 | 36·7 |
| Lennep | 3·3 | 31·4 |
| Solingen | 5·1 | 36·3 |
On August 17 and 18, seven infected Frenchmen arrived at the city of Düsseldorf and were at once isolated in a house outside the city limits; in November a few more infected prisoners arrived. In the small German garrison (523 men) no cases were observed until later (April and May). In December 1870, 20 cases among the civil inhabitants were reported; they constituted the beginning of an epidemic which developed rapidly, reached its climax in July with 648 cases, and then quickly disappeared. In the following year, 524 small-pox patients (75·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) died in the city of Düsseldorf.
In the district of Duisburg eleven cases of small-pox were reported in December 1870, and here again the epidemic developed rapidly, reaching its climax (1,549 cases) in May 1871. The city of Duisburg was most severely attacked; 529 persons (173·2 per 10,000 inhabitants) died there of small-pox in the year 1871.
In the stronghold of Wesel (district of Rees), where the prisoners were confined in the stronghold itself on Buderich Island and Spellmer Heath, persons suffering from small-pox arrived in August and September; and still more arrived in November with a transport of prisoners from Metz. Of the 16,299 prisoners, 1,042 (63·9 per 1,000) contracted small-pox, and 127 (12·2 per cent of those taken sick) died; the largest number of cases was reported in January. In the garrison, which numbered 7,284 men, there were 117 cases of the disease and seven deaths. Since the inhabitants of the city of Wesel and of the surrounding country had continual intercourse with the prisoners, the dissemination of the disease was inevitable; the epidemic among the civil inhabitants began in November and carried away nine persons in 1870 and eighty-four persons in 1871.
In Elberfeld the epidemic did not become very widespread until December 1871. The first fatal case in the city of Essen was reported in January 1871; the epidemic then increased in fury until June 1871 (48 deaths), when it began to abate. In the following year it revived a little in May, when 26 cases were reported. All told, 272 persons (53·0 per 10,000 inhabitants) died of small-pox in Essen in the year 1871, and 112 persons (21·0 per 10,000) in the year 1872.[[274]]