It is impossible to prove that the recrudescence of the disease in Stuttgart in the latter part of 1870 was in any way connected with the arrival of infected persons from France. In the garrison, which numbered some 3,000 men, only four mild cases occurred, inasmuch as all recruits had been vaccinated in Württemberg since the year 1833. But in the latter part of the year 1870 there arrived a battalion of the Landwehr, a third of whom had never done active service, and had therefore never been revaccinated in accordance with the military regulation; after this, numerous cases were reported in the garrison (October 1870 to April 1871), although none of them resulted fatally.
The connexion between the epidemic in the stronghold of Ulm and the war was very obvious. Says Volz:[[287]] ‘After the summer of 1870 had produced only a few cases of small-pox, and a long pause (August to the beginning of November) had intervened, during which we saw absolutely no traces of the disease, the arrival of French prisoners caused the disease to spread far and wide, constituting a part of the epidemic which raged throughout almost all of Europe. In the latter part of September the first cases of small-pox were observed among the prisoners. But a month and a half elapsed before the disease made its appearance among the civil inhabitants; one of the first cases was traced to the beds in the barracks. In January 1871 the disease was conveyed to Söflingen by a woman from that place who had been employed as a nurse in the military hospital at New Ulm. The constant intercourse between Söflingen and Ulm soon asserted itself through the infection of working-men who were employed in the latter place and lived in the former. At the same time the disease frequently appeared among the laundry-owners, washerwomen, scrubwomen, innkeepers, sutler-women, and generally among persons who were employed in any capacity in the field-hospitals and forts. Then, too, patients kept arriving who had been infected in Baden, Switzerland, Bavaria, North Germany, and in regions which, like ours, had been infected by prisoners and fugitives arriving from France. In the district of Beimerstetten the disease also made its appearance, having been brought there in a carpet which a woman purchased from a Bavarian soldier who had accompanied a transport of prisoners. In addition to this woman, sixteen more persons contracted the disease, and three of them died.’
In the city of Ulm thirty-six civilians (13·7 per 10,000 inhabitants) succumbed to the disease, while in the district of Ulm forty-six persons (21·2 per 10,000) died. The climax of the epidemic was reached in May; after a short lull in August and September it started up again and lasted until the autumn of 1872. The garrison at Ulm was also attacked, but not very severely.
Of the immobile troops in Württemberg, who averaged 10,122 men, 7·9 per 1,000 contracted the disease. Of the French prisoners that were held in Württemberg, 390 contracted the disease (the climax, 199 cases, was reached in December). The maximum number of prisoners was 12,958, and 30·1 per 1,000 contracted the disease and twenty-eight died (7·2 per cent of those taken sick).
In Heilbronn,[[288]] as in Stuttgart, a small epidemic had raged before the war broke out; from February to July 1870 some forty persons had contracted the disease. From August to October no more cases were reported, but in November a new epidemic began and spread with great rapidity. The following table indicates the number of cases and deaths in the small-pox hospital at Heilbronn:
| Patients. | Deaths. | |
|---|---|---|
| November (1870) | 2 | |
| December | 19 | 2 |
| January (1871) | 51 | 3 |
| February | 66 | 9 |
| March | 95 | 13 |
| April | 83 | 14 |
| May | 95 | 17 |
| June | 47 | 11 |
| July | 18 | 2 |
In addition to these, twenty-seven cases of the disease were reported in the city, so that the total number of patients was perhaps as large as 1,000. All told, seventy-one persons died in Heilbronn in the course of the epidemic.
(e) Small-pox in Baden in the Years 1871–2
In Baden a great many cases of small-pox were reported among the French prisoners; their maximum number was 12,083, and of these 512 (42·4 per 1,000) contracted the disease, and 21 (4·1 per cent of those taken sick) succumbed to it. The largest number of cases (133) was observed in January. Regarding the distribution of the French prisoners among the various dépôts no information is available, while regarding the immobile German troops we know absolutely nothing. Among the civil inhabitants a small epidemic raged as early as the year 1869, particularly in the district of Mannheim. In the latter part of the year 1870 a considerable number of cases was reported, and a rather severe epidemic rapidly developed. According to a written report of the Baden Bureau of Statistics, the number of deaths due to small-pox per 10,000 inhabitants was as follows:
| District. | 1870. | 1871. | 1872. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constance | 0·6 | 18·8 | 3·2 |
| Freiburg im Breisgau | 3·5 | 27·5 | 2·3 |
| Karlsruhe | 3·7 | 33·1 | 5·2 |
| Mannheim | 1·0 | 6·5 | 3·4 |
| All Baden | 2·4 | 21·7 | 3·5 |