History of medical syringe

Syringes are medical instruments used either to inject fluids into the body or remove fluids from it.

Piston or plunger-controlled medical syringes are illustrated by Abulcasis in the tenth century and by Brunschwig in 1497.

English doctor, Scotsman Alexander Wood is credited by many medical historians with having invented the syringe in 1853.

It was said that Alexander Wood used syringes to deliver morphine to their patients.

But before that the hollow needle was invented in Dublin, at the Meath Hospital, by Francois Rynd in 1845 as a way of introducing fluids into the body of the patients.

He published his result in the Journal Dublin Medical Press.

However, many years before European colonization, American Indian used to inject medicine into wounds and to clean, or irrigate, them.

In 1812, Dr Physick of Philadelphia published a paper, in which he mentions that he successfully applied the syringe to a child poisoned with laudanum and Dr Dorsey afterwards cured two individuals by the same treatment.
History of medical syringe