Armies -- Medical and sanitary affairs; Epidemics -- History; Medicine, Military -- History; Military hygiene
pestilence disappeared. In the Rakonitz district entire communities lay
sick in the first part of the year, but in April no new cases of the
disease occurred. In the Elbogen district typhus fever broke out in
September 1813 in the city of Eger, in consequence of the arrival of
French prisoners and fugitives; the epidemic soon spread over the entire
district, and lasted until March 1814.
The rest of Bohemia suffered less severely from typhus fever in the
winter of 1813–14. In the Beraun district, lying to the south-west of
Prague, it began in October 1813, when the homes of the citizens became
crowded with convalescing soldiers; the epidemic came to an end in March
1814. The number of people who contracted the disease was 3,807, while
the number who succumbed was 296. The adjacent districts of Pilsen and
Kattau were likewise attacked; in the Pilsen district typhus fever broke
out in October 1813, in consequence of the arrival of French prisoners;
a number of places were infected by them, so that in November and
December it developed into an epidemic, which lasted until April. Of
1,185 people who contracted the disease, 237 died. In the Kattau
district 645 contracted the disease and 132 succumbed.
In the eastern part of the country the districts of Tabor and Czaslau
were severely attacked. ‘In the Tabor district’, we read in the
above-mentioned report,[181] ‘there appeared in the month of August at
Neuhaus, where a field-hospital had been erected, several biliary-mucous
nerve-fevers, which broke out in numerous places along the road to
Prague, soon spread to the Tabor district, and became epidemic. They
quickly revealed their presence in all places where sick soldiers passed
the night, or where the natives took part in the transportation of sick
soldiers.’ The climax of the epidemic was in January, and in the middle
of May it disappeared; of 4,267 people who contracted the disease, 448
succumbed. In the Czaslau district, adjacent to the Tabor district on
the north, the disease was disseminated in November 1813 by transports
of prisoners and troops, by the quartering of convalescents in the homes
of peasants, and by peasants who helped to transport sick soldiers. On
December 16, 1813, no less than 4,313 civilians in thirteen places were
suffering from typhus fever. The highest mortality prevailed in the
vicinity of the hospitals; the epidemic disappeared with the arrival of
spring.
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