causes in
the sanitary condition of the city. Munich is known all over the world
as a nest for typhus fever; nor will it soon be forgotten that within
a year it has suffered from two distinct outbreaks of cholera, besides
being the only city in Europe where that epidemic continued to rage
during the winter. The population is estimated at one hundred and
eighty-eight thousand, but this number is generally considered as
greater than the truth. Statistics show that between two and three
thousand sicken annually of typhus, and that of these between two and
three hundred die. Some idea of the special tendency to this disease
may be obtained by comparing the statistics of Munich with those of
Berlin, which is also an unfavorably situated and very unhealthy city.
In Berlin, the regiment most exposed to fever loses annually three
men: in Munich, the first regiment of artillery loses annually
thirteen men. In Berlin, of the whole body of the soldiery--over
eighteen thousand men--sixteen men die annually of typhus; in Munich,
where the number of the soldiers is only twelve thousand, fifty men
die annually of typhus. The disease, too, has been on the increase for
the last three years. In 1872 four hundred and seven persons died of
it, and during the first four months of 1873 one hundred and
twenty-two died. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that many persons
visiting Munich contract the fever there, but return home to sicken
with it, and that this number has greatly increased since the recent
facilities for travel have been extended in all directions from the
capital. If all these cases were to be added to the list of
victims--and they properly belong to it--the number would be appalling
indeed. Even that small body, the Bavarian Parliament, loses one or
more of its members every year from the same disease and yet these men
are more favorably situated than almost any others as regards
protective circumstances. So patent is the danger, and so many are the
instances of disease contracted during a short stay in the capital and
carried away to spread contagion in remote places, that frequently
persons chosen to honorable and lucrative official positions refuse to
accept because, in order to hold such situations, they must reside
temporarily or entirely in Munich. Finally, the general unhealthiness
of Munich cannot be questioned, since statistics show that nearly
fifty per cent, of the children born there die in infancy, and that
the