The Hypodermic Syringe.
First used in the Confederate States army.The Chattanooga News of February 10, 1904, says: ‘The subject of the first use of the hypodermic syringe was discussed at the last meeting of the army surgeons in New Orleans last spring,’ said Dr. R. D. Jackson,
and one surgeon stated that the first time it was used he thought was in the Army of the Tennessee. While in the Tennessee Army I wrote to a friend in Augusta, J. P. K. Walker, to try to get me a hypodermic syringe and send it to me. I never had seen one, but thought from what I had heard about it that it would be very useful in relieving the wounded soldiers of pain.
My friend was fortunate enough to secure one from a physician and sent it to me while I was on duty at the hospital at Ringgold, Ga. I exhibited it to my friends—the surgeons there, eighteen in number—none of them had ever seen one before. At that time I was treating a severe case of dysentery, the patient being a chaplain from Texas and one of General Bragg's most reliable scouts. One of the surgeons suggested that we try the hypodermic syringe on the patient, which was done by insetting a quarter of a grain of morphine in the back. It is possible that the army surgeon at the New Orleans convention, who referred to the first use of the syringe in the Tennessee army, was one of the eighteen I have referred to.
