Armies -- Medical and sanitary affairs; Epidemics -- History; Medicine, Military -- History; Military hygiene
The city of Erfurt (Governmental District of Erfurt) in the year 1869
had been the scene of a small-pox epidemic, which lasted well into the
following year. The last cases of the disease occurring in connexion
with this epidemic were reported on August 13, 1870. To be sure, the
disease revealed its presence on September 27 and 30 among the French
prisoners, who had arrived on August 21, and these cases were followed
by many more when a new transport of prisoners arrived from Metz; but of
all the prisoners in Erfurt, the maximum number of whom was no less than
12,400, only 203 men (16·4 per cent), all told, contracted the disease,
and of these only 28 died. In the garrison, which averaged 4,627 men,
there were 25 cases of small-pox and no deaths. On the other hand, in
December there began among the civil inhabitants an epidemic which
spread rapidly and reached its climax in April 1871, with 244 cases.
According to Guttstadt, the number of deaths due to small-pox was 253
(53·9 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the year 1871, and 33 in the year 1872.
The epidemic did not come to an end until June 1872.[271] In Mülhausen,
prisoners from Mayence, where small-pox was prevalent, arrived in the
first part of December, and some of them were already infected with the
disease. On February 1 the pestilence spread to the civil population,
and carried away twenty-five persons in the course of the entire year.
Nordhausen was free from small-pox in the summer of 1870; but the
disease was twice borne into the city, in October 1870 and in January
1871, by prisoners. The first cases among the civil inhabitants were
reported in the latter month, after which they increased rapidly in
number. In the year 1870 there were 233 deaths (109·5 per 10,000
inhabitants) due to the pestilence. Except in these two cities of Erfurt
and Nordhausen the disease did not become very widespread in the year
1871 in any part of the Governmental District of Erfurt.
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