Armies -- Medical and sanitary affairs; Epidemics -- History; Medicine, Military -- History; Military hygiene
The governmental districts of Münster and Minden (Province of
Westphalia) were only moderately afflicted by small-pox in the years
1870–2. According to Guttstadt, a few cases of the disease were reported
in the city of Münster in May 1869, and these were followed by seven
more in July 1870. After that no cases were reported until November 9,
1870, when a pastor, who had been ministering to the prisoners in
Lingen, contracted the disease; another pastor fared in the same way.
These were followed by eight more cases in two buildings in Münster
itself, and another two in the community of Überwasser, which bordered
on the city of Münster. In the latter part of the year 1870 no cases
were reported in the garrison. In the latter part of January 1871 some
3,000 prisoners were brought from Wesel, which was badly infected with
the disease, to Münster, and there four of them were immediately taken
sick. This was the beginning of a rather extensive epidemic among the
prisoners, 143 of whom contracted the disease and thirteen died; the
maximum number of cases (107) was reported in February. In the garrison,
which numbered 3,910 men, a small number of cases was reported from
February on; of twenty-one cases reported, one resulted fatally. In the
same month a small epidemic raged among the civil inhabitants, reaching
its climax in May. The following table indicates the number of people
who contracted the disease:
November (1870) 2
December 8
January (1871) 0
February 13
March 30
April 48
May 91
June 84
July 43
August 9
September 5
October 1
The number of deaths in the year 1871 was sixty-seven (26·9 per 10,000
inhabitants), and in the year 1872 it was twenty-two; most of the cases
occurred in the quarters of the city known as Jüdefeld and Lamberti, on
account of the proximity of the prison along the Buddenturm. In the
surrounding communities the epidemic reached its climax in July, and
after that began to abate rapidly. The only other region in the
Governmental District of Münster in which small-pox made its appearance
was Recklinghausen, which borders on the Rhenish-Westphalian
coal-fields, whence the infection doubtless came; in Recklinghausen
there were 28·8 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the year 1871, and 46·4
per 10,000 in the year 1872.
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