Born at Oldham, the son of James Whitehead, who had a great local reputation as a herbalist and dealer in simples. James, after working as a boy in a cotton mill, attended the Marsden Street School of Medicine in Manchester and was apprenticed first to Mr Clough, of Lever Street, and afterwards to William Lambert, of Sowerby, Think, who had served as Assistant Surgeon with the Grenadier Guards in the Peninsula. He visited France and Germany in 1886, and on his return to England in 1888 began to practise in Oxford Street, Manchester. He was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Marsden Street School of Medicine in 1842, and in 1856 he founded jointly with Dr Schoepf Merei the Clinical Hospital and Dispensary for Children, which afterwards became the Manchester Clinical Hospital for Women and Children. He was Lecturer on Obstetrics at the Royal School of Medicine, and for fifteen years acted as Surgeon to St Mary's Hospital for Women and Children. He moved into Mosley Street in 1851, where he conducted a large practice until 1881, when he retired to Sutton, Surrey. He married in 1842 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Hayward Radcliffe; she died September 20th, 1844. Whitehead died after a long illness on April 9th, 1885, and was buried in the Ardwick Cemetery, Manchester. Publications: *On the Causes and Treatment of Abortion and Sterility*, 8vo, London, 1847; republished 8vo, Philadelphia, 1848. *On the Transmission from Parent to Offspring of some Forms of Disease*, 8vo, London, 1851; 2nd ed, 1857. *The Wife's Domain by Philothalos*, 8vo, 1860; 2nd ed, 12mo, London, 1874. *Notes on the Rate of Mortality in Manchester*, 8vo, Manchester, 1863. *A Report on Children's Diseases, being the first "Report of the Clinical Hospital"* (jointly with A SCHOEPF MEREI), 8vo, Manchester, 1856.