How dangerous small-pox showed itself to be after the Franco-German War is indicated by a report of Geissler[[280]] regarding the epidemic in Meerane, a manufacturing town of some 20,000 inhabitants. There, between October 1871 and May 1872, no less than 460 persons (434 children and 26 adults) succumbed to small-pox, i.e. 230 per 10,000 inhabitants. Of the children 80·3, and of the adults 26·3, succumbed to the disease in the course of the epidemic.
(c) Small-pox in Bavaria in the Years 1871–2
In the year 1866 Bavaria had an epidemic of small-pox, which, although it abated considerably in the following years, did not leave the country entirely free from the disease; it was, however, confined to a very few localities in the year 1870. In Upper Bavaria cases were reported in that year only in Altötting and Friedberg; in Lower Bavaria absolutely no cases were reported; in Upper Franconia a small epidemic raged in August 1870, in the district of Forchheim; in Central Franconia, where in the year 1868 a rather severe epidemic had raged, the disease had almost entirely disappeared by 1870; Lower Franconia and Swabia, finally, had only sporadic cases of the disease. French prisoners and homeward-bound soldiers, away on furlough, caused the pestilence, as was reported from all sides, to break out anew; the rapid dissemination of the disease, according to these reports, was helped by persons coming in direct contact with French prisoners in crowded places, by teamsters returning from France, by German fugitives from France, by persons handling the linen and clothes of patients, and by the sale of woollen blankets and other things which the French prisoners brought with them. The following table indicates the number of people who succumbed to small-pox in Bavaria:[[281]]
| Total. | Per 10,000 inhabitants. | |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 1, 1865–Oct. 1, 1866 | 577 | 1·2 |
| Oct. 1, 1866–Oct. 1, 1867 | 1,210 | 2·5 |
| Oct. 1, 1867–Oct. 1, 1868 | 917 | 1·9 |
| Oct. 1, 1868–Oct. 1, 1869 | 487 | 1·0 |
| Oct. 1, 1869–Oct. 1, 1870 | 363 | 0·8 |
| Oct. 1, 1870–Dec. 31, 1870 | 224 | |
| 1871 | 5,070 | 10·4 |
| 1872 | 2,992 | 6·1 |
| 1873 | 869 | 1·8 |
| 1874 | 263 | 0·5 |
| 1875 | 87 | 0·2 |
Munich fared pretty well, and the civil population suffered less than the soldiers.[[282]] Not a single case of small-pox occurred there during the entire year of 1870. In November an officer suffering from dysentery returned home from France, and shortly after his arrival he was taken sick with small-pox, which later attacked two members of his family. In the first part of the year 1871 small-pox became more and more widespread, and reached its climax in June. The total number of deaths in the year 1870 was 7, in the year 1871 it was 150 (8·9 per 10,000 inhabitants), and in the year 1872 it was 108 (6·4 per 10,000 inhabitants). The following table indicates the number of deaths that occurred in the months mentioned:
| November (1870) | 2 |
| December | 5 |
| January (1871) | 18 |
| February | 17 |
| March | 15 |
| April | 17 |
| May | 20 |
| June | 22 |
| July | 7 |
| August | 4 |
| September | 6 |
| October | 7 |
| November | 10 |
| December | 7 |
| January (1872) | 10 |
| February | 21 |
| March | 20 |
| April | 20 |
| May | 21 |
| June | 11 |
| July-December | 5 |
In Nuremberg[[283]] sixteen isolated cases of small-pox were observed up to the end of September in the year 1870, and twenty cases from October to December (five in October, four in November, and eleven in December); not a single patient succumbed to the disease in the course of that year. In January the number of people to contract the disease increased rapidly, and the climax of the epidemic was reached in April. The following table indicates the number of deaths caused by the disease in the months mentioned:
| January (1871) | 1 |
| February | 3 |
| March | 10 |
| April | 18 |
| May | 13 |
| June | 11 |
| July | 6 |
| August | 0 |
| September | 3 |
| October | 1 |
| November | 2 |
| December | 5 |
| January (1872) | 7 |
| February | 13 |
| March | 6 |
| April | 9 |
| May | 2 |
| June | 2 |
In the second half of the year 1872 there were two more deaths due to small-pox. The total number of deaths caused by the disease was 73 (8·8 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 40 (4·8 per 10,000) in the year 1872.
Augsburg was very severely attacked. A Bavarian soldier and two French prisoners succumbed there to small-pox in December 1870. In January the disease spread to the civil population, increased rapidly in severity, and reached its climax in May. After abating a little in September, the epidemic started up anew and did not disappear entirely until May 1872. The number of deaths is indicated by the monthly reports found in the Bavarian Ärztliches Intelligenzblatt, a few of which we reproduce: