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.”