An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

HICKMAN, Henry Hill

1 entries
  • 5647

A letter on suspended animation, containing experiments showing that it may be safely employed during operations on animals, with a view of ascertaining its probable utility in surgical operations on the human subject.

Ironbridge, England: W. Smith, 1824.

Hickman was the first to prove that the pain of surgical operations could be abolished by the inhalation of a gas. He rendered animals unconscious, first through partial asphyxiation by the exclusion of air, then by inhalation of carbon dioxide. He amputated limbs without pain and with good surgical results. His work, the first in the field of surgical anesthesia, was received with apathy, and no use was made of it. His “Letter” was reissued in the Hickman centenary volume, published by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, London, 1930.



Subjects: ANESTHESIA