Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 981

CHARLES WHITE (1728-1813) A treatise on the management of pregnant and lying-in women. Printed for E. and C. Dilly 1773 xx, 353 pp., 2 plates. 20.5 cm.

White, a contemporary of William Smellie and William Hunter, was the leading surgeon of his day in northern England. In 1752, at the age of twenty-four, he founded and became chief surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary and in 1790 he played a leading role in founding a lying-in charity hospital which later became St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester. The present work is filled with practical suggestions, emanating as they do from an author of great experience, unusual powers of observation, and sound reasoning. White made substantial contributions to the etiology and prevention of puerperal fever in this treatise. He insisted on the necessity of maintaining absolute cleanliness in the lying-in chamber, adequate ventilation, and the isolation of infected patients. This book, translated into French and German and also printed in America, became a mighty force in the reform of medical practice at a time when it was sorely needed.

Cited references: Cushing W164; Garrison-Morton 6270; Waller 10268

Gift of John Martin, M.D.