I felt a real prick yesterday!

No, no, no, I don't mean the obscene version of "prick", I mean the real thing, you know, that dreaded 'needle-thingie' that 'Nursie' has such delight in stabbing into your arm - or even more sensitive parts of your body!  So, yesterday, I had not one, not two but three pricks.  The first was inside my mouth - "Oh, the horror, the horror!" - as a Chinese lady dentist 'stuck it to me', so to speak, prior to yanking out one of my molars!  I know you will all be immensely proud of me because I didn't cry, honestly, Mummy!  Mind you, I never got a 'sweetie', either!  You just can't trust those Chinese!  Then it was off to 'Nursie' at my local doctor's surgery where for reasons I can't remember I received another two injections.  Again, no tears - and no sweetie either - typical NHS!

Actually, as an after-thought, isn't the hypodermic needle a superb invention.  We all take it for granted but who first dreamed it up?  And where would we be without it?

 

 

 

Comments

[Bob]

Good question:

"The earliest confirmed experiments in intravenous injection were performed by Christopher Wren in 1656. Wren, curious if the effect of an intravenous injection would be as effective as oral administration, used a goose quill for the needle and an animal bladder for the syringe to administer opium to dogs.

The hollow metal needle was invented in 1844 by Irish physician Francis Rynd.

The first devices recognizable as hypodermic syringes were independently invented virtually simultaneously in 1853 by Scottish physician Alexander Wood and French surgeon Charles Gabriel Pravaz. These was first used to inject morphine as a painkiller."

https://www.mddionline.com/drug-delivery/hypodermic-syringes-greatest-medical-device-all-time

[David Duff]

Thank you, Bob, yet again you prove you are an education!

[Penseivat]

Oh, you've done it now! Bill Gates, aka the Divine Ruler, will be regularly looking at his personal Sinclair ZX Spectrum so the nanobots you have innocently ingested into your system will tell him where you are, who you are talking to, and what you are saying. Very shortly, you will find it difficult to post anything critical of anything he disagrees with (which is subject to change, without notice, at any time).
I would normally write to you to warn you of this, but I'm not allowed near anything sharp!