Francis Rynd (1801 – 1861) was an Irish physician.
Arguably the inventor of the hypodermic needle, performing and recording the results of the first hypodermic injection on June 3rd 1844. However, the invention is more commonly attributed to Alexander Wood in 1853
In Rynd’s design, a morphine solution flowed under gravity through the skin breaching trochar, acting as a sedative to treat neuralgia. The 1853 invention used a plunger syringe, allowing doctors to inject solutions faster, and to give intravenous injections.
“Nothing did me any good but a curious little new-fangled operation of putting opium under the skin, which relieved one for 24 hours”
Florence Nightingale
Biography
- Born 1801 Dublin, Ireland
- Physician at the Meath Hospital in Dublin
- 1830 – MRCS member of the Royal College of Surgeons
- 1836 – Medical superintendent of the Mountjoy Prison
- Died 1861
Major Publications
- Rynd F. Neuralgia—introduction of fluid to the nerve. Dublin Med Press 13:167–168, 1845
- Rynd F. Pathological and practical observations on strictures, and some other diseases of the urinary organs. London. 1849.
References
- Obituary: Francis Rynd. Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science. Vol 33 1862. pp254.
- Obituary: Francis Rynd (1801-1861). JAMA. 1970;212(7):1208.
- The Irish doctor who invented the syringe. Irish Times. Dec 5, 2002
eponym
the person behind the name
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