The Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel (in 1858), after reporting that the total mortality under five years in the Whitechapel district is about 56 per cent., wrote:-- "How to overcome this frightful and apparently increasing amount of mortality of the young is a problem well worthy the attentive consideration of every citizen. The time may be far distant before this problem is solved; nevertheless it is my duty to chronicle facts, and although I may not be able to suggest a remedy to meet this evil, still the knowledge that so large an amount of infant mortality does exist in our district--I may say, at our very doors--will perhaps rouse the attention of the philanthropist, the man of science, and the man of leisure, to investigate its cause, and endeavour to mitigate it." Once more it must be called to mind that this mortality was not the whole of the evil, for it was indicative of widespread infantile sickness and disease among those who escaped the death penalty--sickness and disease impairing the health and strength of thousands upon thousands of the juvenile population. The facts set forth by many of the Medical Officers of Health must have enlightened many of the new local authorities as to the nature and extent of the work which it had now become their duty to perform, and the grave problems for which they were expected to find the best solution. The earlier annual reports of many of the Vestries and District Boards were poverty-stricken in the extreme, and were mostly confined to bald and uninforming tables of receipts and expenditure, which practically threw but little light upon the condition of their parishes. The Vestry of St. Mary, Newington, evidently anxious to prevent disappointment as to immediate results from its action, stated that:-- "In consequence of the previous want of adequate sanitary powers in the local authorities of this and other suburban parishes, so great an extent of sanitary improvement was required when the Vestry came into operation, that it was impossible the whole could be dealt with at once, at the same time acting with consideration for those who have to bear the effects of many years' neglect of those sanitary duties which are now found to be so essential." Lambeth Vestry expressed its desire to discover-- "In what manner a prompt and beneficial execution of the provisions of the Act can be secured without creating any serious increase in local taxation." One of the Vestries, indeed, gave the quaint explanation that one of the things which somewhat retarded sanitary improvement was "the novelty of applying compulsory powers to landlords." The desirability of securing parks and places of recreation for the people was one of the matters which first appealed to some of the Vestries and District Boards, and memorials were addressed to the Metropolitan Board urging the importance of their putting in force the powers conferred on them for the purchase of land for such purposes.