He was born to tenant farmers at Lady Halton, (near
Bromfield, just outside
Ludlow, Shropshire). He was the third son and fifth child of thirteen children of John Hickman and his wife Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Hill of nearby
Stanton Lacy. He was baptised on 30 January 1800 at Bromfield After qualifying, he began his medical career in 1821, with his first practice in
Ludlow and in early 1823 he began important animal experiments in anaesthesia. He would make the animal insensible, with
carbon dioxide, known by the historical name
carbonic acid gas at the time, then amputate a part of the animal to see whether the animal could feel
pain under this 'anaesthesia'. Later scientists used
nitrous oxide,
ether, and
chloroform to achieve similar effects. While living and practising in
Shifnal, on 21 February 1824, Hickman wrote up his work and sent it to
Thomas Andrew Knight of
Downton Castle, near
Ludlow, one of the Presidents of the
Royal Society, perhaps intending that the information would reach
Sir Humphry Davy. It is not known if Davy ever saw the pamphlet, and a claim on a surviving pamphlet of his treatise that it had been read by Davy before Knight, is crossed out, indicating it had not been publicly read. Hickman, disillusioned by the lack of response and wounded by an 1826 article in
The Lancet titled 'Surgical Humbug' that ruthlessly criticized his work, went to Paris and submitted his writing to King
Charles X of France in April 1828. This was forwarded to the Section of Medicine at the
French Academy of Sciences, but despite the support of
Napoleon's field surgeon,
Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, who spoke that he had noticed that wounded soldiers felt no pain when, numbed by cold, he performed amputations, Hickman met a similar response in France to that he had received in England. With success eluding him, he returned to England and set up a new practice, in Teme Street, at number 18, in
Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire. These premises are now occupied by an optician's practice. Hickman died aged 30 from
syphilis, and was buried at Bromfield on 2 April 1830. Hickman married in 1821 Eliza Hannah Gardner, daughter of a farmer of Leigh Court near
Worcester, with whom he had one son and three daughters. ==Current views==