In consequence of all this grave suffering, the representatives of the people petitioned the Imperial Government to provide as soon as possible for a uniform legislative regulation, making universal vaccination compulsory. The desire expressed in this petition was soon fulfilled by the submission of a bill on February 5, 1874; the bill was passed by the Reichstag on March 14, and received the signature of the Kaiser on April 8, 1874. This law required all persons to be vaccinated in the first year of their lives, and to be revaccinated in their twelfth year; it applied generally to all Germany. The beneficial result of the passing of this law was clearly demonstrated in the course of the following decades. Notwithstanding the fact that Germany is almost entirely surrounded by states in which epidemics of small-pox, in consequence of insufficient vaccination, are of frequent occurrence, since the passing of the Imperial Vaccination Law the disease has not once made its appearance on German soil in the form of a widespread epidemic. Despite the fact that small-pox is frequently conveyed into the country, especially by foreign working-men, the efforts to keep it confined within narrow limits have always been successful. The measures which are so effective in the case of other diseases—isolation of the patients and of suspected persons living in the vicinity, disinfection of the room and effects which have been used by patients—in an insufficiently vaccinated community do not have the desired rapid success, since the contagion of small-pox clings with extraordinary tenacity to clothes and articles of general use. This fact has been abundantly proved in the epidemics of small-pox that have occurred in Europe in the course of the last few decades. CHAPTER IX FROM THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR TO THE PRESENT TIME Among the great advances made in the last few decades of the nineteenth century must be included the successful battle of modern hygiene against infectious diseases. This struggle was introduced by the development of practical hygiene in England and by the perfection of scientific hygiene through the work of Pettenkofer. But a firm basis on which to combat pestilence was not secured until the brilliant discoveries of Koch and his successors pointed out to us the cause of these pestilences, and methods were found to demonstrate in a short time the presence of disease-germs, even among persons who become ill but slightly, or not at all, and who for that reason are very dangerous to those about them.