Hamburg,[272] after the by no means mild epidemic that raged there in the year 1864 (19·7 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants) suffered very little from the disease in the following years; in 1868 there were five deaths reported, and in 1869 the number increased to twenty. After the Franco-German War an epidemic of small-pox raged in Hamburg, which was more extensive and more furious than almost any other epidemic that Germany had ever experienced. In the years 1870–2 no less than 4,053 persons succumbed to small-pox in Hamburg. Among the French prisoners there were twenty-two cases of the disease and one death, and among the German troops there were twelve cases and no deaths. The disease first made its appearance in the summer of 1870, when there were a few cases in the city; but in October they began to increase in number, and by the first of the year the disease was spreading rapidly. The number of deaths in Hamburg was: 1870. 1871. 1872. January 69 158 February 107 74 March 163 47 April 226 16 May 364 17 June 2 503 4 July 2 554 2 August 6 578 2 September 5 373 1 October 10 311 1 November 24 229 December 34 170 1 ——— ————— ——— Entire year 83 3,647 323 Per 10,000 inhabitants 3·6 154·4 9·5 The figures for 1870 and 1871 include the city and suburbs, and those for 1872 the entire State—a fact, however, which makes but little difference. This severe epidemic gave rise to the passing of a law on January 30, 1872, rendering vaccination compulsory; the enforcement of this law was greatly facilitated in the following years by the fact that everybody very soon came to recognize the superiority of animal lymph.