Among the greatest of these foes was overcrowding. The statistics of infantile mortality are fairly reliable, and, so far as there are errors, those errors were in understating and not overstating it. In St. Giles', in 1861, 43-1/2 per cent. of the total number of deaths were of children under five years of age. "This enormous infantile mortality," wrote the Medical Officer of Health, "is unfortunately only what is customary in our district." In the Strand, 1861, the percentage of deaths under five annually exceeded 45 per cent. of the total deaths. In Westminster, in 1861, there were 1,685 deaths, 770 being those of children under five--of which in St. John's parish, out of 834 deaths, 427 were under five--or over 50 per cent. In Bethnal Green in 1862 it was close upon 60 per cent. In the Potteries, Notting Dale, with a population of 1,100, the deaths of children in 1870 under five were 63 per cent. of all deaths. In 1871, 72 per cent. On the south side of the river the same tale was told. In Wandsworth 42 per cent. in 1861; in Battersea 45 per cent. in 1862; in Rotherhithe, in 1862, nearly 50 per cent.; in Bermondsey, in 1863, 57 per cent. "It certainly," wrote the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham, "could not have been intended by Providence that of all the children born, nearly one-half should die without attaining one-fourteenth part of the threescore years and ten allotted to mankind--and yet we see the yearly realisation of this astounding fact." Other causes besides overcrowding contributed to this great mortality. "Poverty," wrote the Medical Officer of Health of Poplar, "with its concomitants--defective nourishment, want of cleanliness and ventilation, malaria, overcrowded dwellings, deficient supply or impure quality of water--these all act with unerring force upon the tender constitutions of the young." And another wrote:-- "What with overcrowding, insufficient food, and inattention to cleanliness, it is almost impossible an infant can resist an attack of the commonest disorder." And some places were in such evil sanitary condition that child life was impossible therein. Of two Courts in Islington the Medical Officer of Health reported in 1863:-- "Young children cannot live there. All that are born there, or are brought to reside there, are doomed to die within two years." The state of the public health generally as the result of all these sanitary abominations was very unsatisfactory. In 1863 the mortality of London was unusually high. The Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles' wrote:-- "The year has been conspicuous for a high mortality resulting from the prevalence of epidemics to an unusual degree--smallpox, scarlatina, typhus." The following year he reported to have been--