who had studied White's methods at the Lying in Hospital there. He had learned White's methods whilst in England and used them in Vienna. During his time there 65,000 women passed through the Vienna Lying In Hospital with a death rate of 1.3%. He was deposed by Professor Klein who discarded White's methods and also at the same time he brought in the practice of teaching on the cadaver to his juniors. His mortality rate increased to 7.8% in the first year and as high as 29% one year. It was into this situation that Semmelweis came and slowly brought forward his insights into the causes and prevention of Puerpural Fever. He stopped the students attending cadavers in 1846 but it took him until 1861 to emphasise the importance of foul bed clothes, general cleanliness and the washing of hands of midwives etc. In almost all areas White's writings advise the same precautions as Semmelweis 75 years later. The only omission was in avoiding cadavers which was not a factor in Manchester. White was first to pronounce on good care to avoid infection. His work saved thousands of lives. He was also ahead of his time in the decisions about delivery and clamping of the cord. The habit was to hurry the delivery of shoulders after the head had delivered to prevent retention of the placenta . White was certain that it was better to allow a pause and restitution of the baby's body before the woman pushed to deliver the shoulders. He stated that nature knew best and insisted that it was safer to wait. Again he has been proven right. Even more impressively is his advice that in delivery the desire to cut the cord early should be resisted. Dr White insisted in waiting until the cord had stopped pulsating. Even in our time there have been advocates of early clamping but it would appear that he was right as made clear by Dr Peter Dunn in his article on the safe delivery of preterm infants where he cites in detail the work of White over two hundred years earlier. Early clamping has been associated not only with increased Respiratory Distress but also with Haemodynamic circulatory problems. Manchester Royal Infirmary When he returned to Manchester in 1751, he agitated so actively for the establishment of an infirmary that the prominent local merchant Joseph Bancroft was persuaded to defray