

Transcribed from the 1824 Office of W. Smith edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org

                        [Picture: Pamphlet cover]





                                    A
                                  LETTER
                                    ON
                           SUSPENDED ANIMATION,


                                CONTAINING

                               EXPERIMENTS

             _Shewing that it may be safely employed during_

                          OPERATIONS ON ANIMALS,

                      With the View of ascertaining

            ITS PROBABLE UTILITY IN SURGICAL OPERATIONS ON THE

                              Human Subject,

                              _Addressed to_

                  T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ. OF DOWNTON CASTLE,
                              Herefordshire,
               ONE OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

                                * * * * *

                            BY DR. H. HICKMAN,
                               OF SHIFFNAL;

        Member of the Royal Medical Societies of Edinburgh, and of
                  the Royal College of Surgeons, London.

                                * * * * *

              IRONBRIDGE: Printed at the Office of W. Smith.
                                  1824.




_TO THE PUBLIC_.


AT the particular request of gentlemen of the first rate talent, and who
rank high in the scientific world, it is, that the author of the
following letter is induced to lay it before the public generally, but
more particularly his medical brethren; in the hope that some one or
other, may be more fortunate in reducing the object of it beyond a
possibility of doubt.  It may be said, and with truth, that publications
are too frequently the vehicles of self-adulation, and as such, suffer
greatly from the lash of severe criticism; but the author begs to assure
his readers, that his views are totally different, merely considering it
a duty incumbent on him, (as a medical practitioner, and servant to the
public), to make known any thing which has not been tried, and which
ultimately may add something towards the relief of human suffering,
arising from acute disease.  The only method of obtaining this end, is,
in the author’s opinion, candid discussion, and liberality of sentiment,
which, too commonly is a deficient ingredient in the welfare of so
important a profession, productive of serious consequences, not only to
the parties themselves, but to the patient whose life is entrusted to
their care.  The duty and object, however, of the Physician and Surgeon,
is generally considered to be the relief of a fellow-creature, by
applying certain remedies to the cure of internal affections, or cutting
some portion of the body, whereby parts are severed from each other
altogether, or relieving cavities of the aggravating cause of disease.
There is not an individual, he believes, who does not shudder at the idea
of an operation, however skilful the Surgeon, or urgent the case, knowing
the great pain that must necessarily be endured; and it is frequently
lamented by the operator himself, that something has not been done to
tranquilize fear, and diminish the agony of the patient.  With this view
of the subject then, it is, that he submits his observations and
experiments to the public in the brief form of a letter to a private
gentleman of the highest talent as a man of science, who with others,
thought them worthy to be laid before the Royal Society; and if one grain
of knowledge can be added to the general fund, to obtain a means for the
relief of pain, the labours of the author will be amply rewarded.




A LETTER, &c.


_Sir_,

THE facility of suspending animation, by carbonic acid gas, and other
means, without permanent injury to the subject, having been long known,
it appears to me rather singular that no experiments have hitherto been
made with the object of ascertaining whether operations could be
successfully performed upon animals whilst in a torpid state; and whether
wounds inflicted upon them in such a state would be found to heal with
greater or less facility than similar wounds inflicted on the same
animals whilst in possession of all their powers of feeling and
suffering.  Several circumstances led me to suspect that wounds made on
animals whilst in a torpid state, would be found, in many cases, to heal
most readily; and