34. Francis Rynd changed the practice of medicine forever
Francis Rynd was a doctor of medicine in Dublin, Ireland, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and the medical superintendent of Mountjoy Prison, located in the heart of the city. In 1845 Rynd introduced a hollow needle through which he injected a painkiller, “fifteen grains of acetate of morphia” into a patient suffering from pains in the jaw and head. He announced the procedure and the successful outcome of the case in an article printed in the Dublin Medical Press in March, 1845, the first known example of medicine being administered through hypodermic injection.
