Hickman (1800–1830)

Magendies' animals may have su ffered less had Henry Hill Hickman been more persuasive when he visited France in April 1826 to present his ideas on surgical anaesthesia to King Charles Xth. Hickman chose CO2 to examine his concept of "suspended animation" with the unique a priori study objective of inducing reversible unconsciousness in order to facilitate surgery [20]. Consequently, Hickman went beyond inducing hypercapnic coma (as early as the 1820s) by testing CO2's ability to produce surgical anaesthesia in dogs and mice. In one of his first experiments, a one-month-old puppy was enclosed beneath a glass cover (bell jar) and

*"in ten Minutes he showed great marks of uneasiness, in 12 respiration became di*ffi*cult, and in 17 Minutes ceased altogether, at 18 Minutes I took o*ff *one of the ears, which was not followed by*

### *haemorrhage, respiration soon returned and the animal did not appear to be the least sensible to pain, in three days the ear was perfectly healed"* [21]

Hickman's subsequent pamphlet entitled: "A letter on Suspended Animation containing experiments showing that it may safely be employed during operations on animals with the view of ascertaining its probable utility in surgical operations on the Human Subject," was ignored by the Royal Society probably because Hickman's chosen sponsor lacked the necessary enthusiasm for its fair promotion. Furthermore, an 1826 article in The Lancet authored by "Antiquack" (purportedly a professionally envious Davy) entitled 'Surgical Humbug' ruthlessly criticized his work and prompted his defection to France, where, despite the support of Napoleon's field surgeon, he met a similar response. Since his premature death in 1830, this and previous failures to recognize the potential of his work have been the subject of anguished review [22] because it meant Hickman's prescient desire to develop surgical anaesthesia in humans took another 20 years for others to achieve.
