In the Governmental District of Cologne small-pox became more or less widespread in the years 1871–2 in the city and immediate vicinity of Cologne; in the few years preceding the war Cologne had had numerous cases of the disease, and in the year 1866 a small epidemic (223 cases) had occurred there; in the year 1869 some forty cases were officially reported. According to Guttstadt, the first transport of prisoners, among them a small-pox patient, passed through Cologne early in September. Of the gradually increasing number of prisoners (the maximum number, including Deutz, was 13,774) 175, all told, contracted the disease and twenty-four succumbed to it. In the garrison, which numbered 9,207 men, there were only nineteen cases of the disease and one death. Among the civil inhabitants an epidemic broke out as early as September 12; it reached its climax in April 1871, abated somewhat during the summer, and in October and November started up again. The following table indicates the number of people that contracted and succumbed to the disease in the months mentioned (the population of the city at that time was 129,000):

Patients.Deaths.
September (1870)243
October6518
November8015
December9727
January (1871)19453
February33679
March43487
April51071
May31850
June15934
July7513
August3510
September163
October665
November349
December72

According to this table, 63 persons (4·9 per 10,000 inhabitants) died in the months September-December 1870, and 416 persons (32·2 per 10,000) died in the year 1871; in the following year 25 more deaths (1·9 per 10,000) were reported. In the district of Cologne (excluding the city) 212 persons (24·3 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to small-pox in the year 1871; in all the other districts the number of deaths caused by the disease was small.

In the Governmental District of Coblenz the city of Coblenz and the adjacent districts of Neuwied and Mayen, as well as the district of Kreuznach, which lay in the extreme south and very near the scene of the war, were most severely attacked in the year 1871. In the stronghold of Coblenz, according to Guttstadt, a locksmith contracted the disease in the latter part of August; he had become infected while sitting beside the body of his brother, who had succumbed to the disease in Casbach, a village near Lingen, in Hanover. The first prisoners arrived in Coblenz on September 15, and on September 23 one of them was found to be suffering from small-pox and was taken to the lazaret; new transports of prisoners kept bringing more cases of the disease. Of the 15,011 French prisoners that arrived there, a large number contracted the disease; the maximum number was in January, when 571 (38·0 per 1,000) were taken sick, and 111 died (19·4 per cent of the patients). In the garrison, which consisted of 8,710 men, there were 83 cases of the disease and four deaths in the month of November. Among the civil inhabitants of Coblenz 81 persons (24·2 per 10,000) died of small-pox in the year 1871; in the rest of the district of Coblenz 277 persons (67·1 per 10,000) died; in the district of Mayen there were 234 deaths (43·9 per 10,000), in the district of Neuwied 220 deaths (32·3), and in the district of Kreuznach 129 deaths (21·2). In the year 1872 the epidemic was not at all widespread in any of the districts.

In the Governmental District of Aix-la-Chapelle only the district of Malmedy suffered severely in the year 1871; being in the south-western part of the governmental district it was, like the border districts in the Governmental District of Trèves mentioned below, exposed to the first onrush of the transports of prisoners. The number of deaths there in the year 1871 was 333 (111·0 per 10,000), whereas in the following year not a single death due to small-pox was reported in the district. At Jülich a Frenchman suffering from small-pox arrived in July, and in November an epidemic broke out among the prisoners; 188 cases of small-pox were reported, and of these only three terminated fatally. In the garrison only one man contracted the disease.

The governmental district of Trèves had a very large number of small-pox cases in the year 1871, since a large part of it bordered directly on the enemy’s country, so that large numbers of sick and convalescent prisoners passed through it. In the year 1872 only a few cases of small-pox were reported, except in the immediate vicinity of Trèves, where the pestilence became quite widespread. The following table indicates the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the districts mentioned:

1871.1872.
Daun3·01·9
Wittlich18·71·3
Bernkastel6·10·5
St. Wendel20·0
Ottweiler36·20·4
Trèves (city)12·64·1
Trèves (district)17·220·6
Prüm33·20·9
Bitburg23·61·4
Saarburg60·91·0
Merzig51·52·8
Saarlouis80·00·2
Saarbrücken49·50·3

The province of Hesse-Nassau suffered very little from small-pox in the years 1871–2, since a compulsory vaccination law had long been in force there. Large epidemics did not occur anywhere. In Cassel a case of small-pox had occurred in the summer of 1870, and after that there were no more cases until November 9; on that day a man was taken sick who had been acting as a sutler among the German troops before Paris and had there been infected. On November 18 a nurse employed in a house in which a field-soldier was quartered contracted the disease, and this case was followed by six more cases among the civil inhabitants; all told, six persons succumbed to small-pox in the city of Cassel in the year 1870, ninety-nine persons (21·4 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and four persons in the year 1872.

In Frankfurt-on-the-Main a few cases of small-pox were reported in the course of the year 1870; the disease was perhaps conveyed thither from Stuttgart. After the commencement of the war it was borne into the city by numerous transports of soldiers and prisoners, and a widespread epidemic soon developed. In the garrison thirty-two cases of the disease were reported. After the Rochus Hospital was opened to small-pox patients, in April, the epidemic reached its climax; the following table, found in the German Health Report, indicates the number of patients received into the above-mentioned hospital and the number that died there:

No. patients.No. deaths.
January8113
February14816
March16817
April17725
May
June3612