Evening star., 1947-10-09
By Thomas 6. Buchonon


A medical gun which shoots"
drugs painlessly into a patient S
skin by compressed air was unveiled
Yesterday at the closing session of
the District Medical Societys scien-
tific assembly.
The instrument, a doctor reported,
may supplant completely the hypo-
dermic needle for medical injections.
It's other possible uses, both medi-
cal and nonmedical, are scarcely
guessed at as yet, so new is the prin-
ciple of operation, he told the as
sembly.
In the hands of a gangster, he
admitted, it could be, used as a
weapon to inject an enemy with
poison and escape before the crime
was detected.
Other Uses Possible.
In industry. the principle might
he modified for use IN the injec-
ton of fuel to power an engine.
It might even be able to blast
away unwanted tattoo marks from
the surface Of the skin, he specu-
lated.
The disclosure was made by DR..
Edward B. Tuohy, a newcomer to
the Georgetown Medical School
staff and president of the Amer
lean Society of Anesthesiologists.
He raced through a routine scien-
tific paper on anesthesia, then
pulled out an instrument shaped
like a f1ashlight, called two assist
ants to the Hotel Statler stage and
announced he was about to demon
strate an entirely new hypodermic
technique. -
AS the capacity audience leaned
forward to watch, the younger doc
tors held up a piece of paper, and
Or. Tuohy pressed his @Fhashlight'
against it.
IT am holding IN my hand an
instrument called a 'hypo-spray,'
he told them.
e ~ Painless Injection. -.
He showed the doctors how the
device could fire" a spray of liquid
through the paper without leaving
any visible hole, then repeated the
process on the barred arm of an
assistant. The assistant testified he
felt no pain, yet a small swelling
under the skin showed an injec-
ton had been made.
BY turning the handle Of the
hypo-spray gun, DR.. Tuohy ex-
planned, a pressure up to 125 pounds
per square inch is built up! When
the trigger is released, liquid in
side the device is squirted through
tiny opening a three-thousandth OF
an inch wide.
The resultant spray penetrates
the skin to maximum depth of an
inch and half, with practically no
sensation aroused. OF the persons
on whom it has so far been tried,
DR.. Tuohy reported. go per cent
don't feel it at all, while the others
say the pain is negligible, compared
to a hypodermic needle.
The value of so painless an in
lection can scarcely be overesti-
mated, he pointed out, particularly
in the relief it promises to bring tol
diabetes who take constant shots"
of irisulin and to those who receive
frequent injections of penicillin and
other drugs.
Sterile Ammunition"
Tn addition. he contended II is a
fool-proof method of assuring sterile
equipment. Whereas hypodermicE
needle may get rusty or otherwise
contaminated, the metapule con-
tanning the drug ammunition" of
the hypo-spray gun remains sterile
during the handling.
The idea of the hypo-spray, DR..
Tuohy disclosed, came from OBJ
of the effect of industrial
and wartime explosions, in which
foreign matter penetrated mems
skins without any visible point OF
entry on the surface.
He said the first medical applica-
ton was conceived by his former
pupil and associate, DR.. Robert Hing
son, professor of anesthesiology at
the University of Tennessee Medical
College. After DR.. Hingson sug-
gested its possible medical uses, he
he shared in further de-
velopment Of the principle.
Soon to Be Available.
DR.. Tuohy said a patent is pend
ing on the medical guns, and assert
ed they would become available to
the medical profession early next
year.
\ Some Federal control of the dis
tribution of the guns, or at least OF
-.