Shropshire Routes to Roots

2. Experiments

Between 1820 and 1824, while still living in Ludlow, Hickman carried out a series of experiments. His motivation for these experiments was a desire to find a method of preventing suffering during operations. Surgical operations before anaesthesia relied on speed. Hickman would therefore have been happy with the patient being unconscious if only for a matter of minutes. He carried out his tests on animals, which he described as having been already condemned. In these experiments he describes enclosing a puppy beneath a glass cover, as shown in the picture, and depriving the pup of oxygen while increasing the amount of carbon dioxide. When the puppy was unconscious he amputated an ear without the puppy apparently feeling pain. He repeated these experiments increasing the concentrations of carbon dioxide and also using an adult dog and mice as subjects.

Hickman performing his experiments [Reproduced with kind permission of "The Wellcome Trustees]

Hickman was a meticulous scientist and recorded all his experiments accurately and methodically. His conclusions from these experiments were that Carbonic Acid gas had the potential to render man unconscious. This was still a theory as he did not have the authority to transfer his experiments on animals to man. However he clearly saw the implications of his discovery, and wished for backing from the scientific world. To these ends he sought help by sending the results of his experiments to a leading scientist of the day.

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