A dramatic documentary of the history of the hypodermic needle and it's inventor. To be shot in black and white, probably 8mm, silent film style with intertitles (text only screens between shots).

**Supporting evidence, only a footnote on the intertitles.

TITLE: Myth of the Needlemaker's Wife

FADE TO:

INT. HOUSE
The beautiful wife of Dr. Wood lays dead on the bedroom floor. Her skin is porcelin. Wearing a lace nightgown. Perhaps we notice it flutter in the wind from an open window. Perhaps also we notice the syringe on the floor beside her. Now we dwell in silence. Her husband comes to the door and sees her dead; gaze upon his grief.

INTERTITLE: Doctor Andrew Wood.

**"Injection of drugs is relatively recent, dating back to the invention of the hypodermic syringe in 1853. Interestingly enough, the worlds first morphine addict was the wife of the man who came up with that device."
From Chocolate to Morphine. Andrew Weil, M.D. & Winfred Rosen (pg83).

Establishing shots of Edinburgh. There are castles, grand manors, schools, hovels and dirt roads. The city scene is actually cardboard collage of old photos, dimly lit and foggy. Hold on shot of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

INTERTITLE: Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

INT. HOSPITAL
the doctor is with one of his patients. The patient is twitching uncontrollably. He administers liquid morphia with a spoon. It is difficult to get the spoon in there and the morphia spills out on the patients face.

He tries to pour another spoonful, but the bottle is empty.

He goes to get another bottle. In the supply room Dr. Wood finds a nurse and another doctor drinking the morphia. They are laughing, and when they see the expression on Dr Woods face, they laugh even harder.

INTERITLE: Many of The Doctor’s peers became Opium Eaters.

**"Morphinism has a particular interest for medical men, because quite an incredible number of our colleagues have fallen victims to it. "
The Dublin Journal of Medical Science, On Morphinism* By ARTHUR WYNNE FOOT

EXT: STREET
Doctor wood is walking home, fuming about the incident at the hospital. A bee buzzes around his head it lands on his forehead. He manages to swat it, but too late, he is stung. He looks at the crushed bee in his hand, His face changes from an expression of pain to one of inspiration. He runs home.

**"Wood Developed a hypodermic procedure using a syringe constructed on the model of a bee sting. which he publicised in papers of 1855 and 1858.
The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics By Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines

INT. HOUSE
Dr. Wood bursts into his house. He calls for his wife and she comes. He holds out the crushed bee in hand and frantically describes the revelation he's stumbled on.

Perplexing to her, she quickly retrieves some ice for his bite.

He pushes away the ice and attempts to demonstrate his idea with her embroidery hoop and needle.

She is amused by his demonstration, and gazes adoringly upon her brilliant husband.

INT. HOSPITAL
Dr. wood is with another patient. The patient exhibits a terrible grimace of pain - he is suffering from facial neuralgia. Dr. Wood demonstrates the squirting action of the syringe. The patients face, twisted in pain. Dr. Wood carefully cradles the patients head and injects the morphia into his cheeks. The patient lies back on the bed, immediately relaxed and euphoric.

INT. OFFICE
A paper plops down on a desk; it is by Dr Wood. On a New Method of Treating Neuralgia by the Direct Application of Opiates to the Painful Part.

INTERTITLE:
Some historians write that Dr. Wood's wife was the worlds first intravienous drug addict, and the first casualty of opiate overdose.

INT. HOSPITAL
In the supply room; the same Doctor and nurse are lauging. Only this time the nurse is getting ready to give the doctor an injection. She too has track marks on her arms.

INTERTITLE
More likely, Mrs. Rebecca Wood outlived her husband. The myth of her unfortunate demise was fabricated by others who resented The Doctor and his invention.

**("The story that Wood's wife Rebecca Massy, was amongst the earliest of these addicts, and soon died of a morphine overdose has been repeated by those who believe he should have suffered retribution. It is a myth; she outlived him and survived until 1894. "
The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics By Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines)

INTERTITLE:
The End

**"In 1657, Wren with the help from
Robert Boyle and John Wilkins constructed a simple syringe and started
injecting medicinal substances in experimental animals. Sir Christopher Wren
initially performed experiments in which he infused substances like wine
and ales into the venous circulation of dogs with not unexpected results. "

**"It has been suggested that Wood’s fundamental mistake that the effect of hypodermic injection of a substance was primarily local implicating that drug dependence was very unlikely by hypodermic injection of opiates actually paved the path for emergence of a huge number of patients morbidly dependent upon morphine, so- called ‘morphinists’ of the nineteenth century."

Editorial
Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 2006; 50(3) : 199 199–204
EVOLUTION OF MEDICAL APPLICATION OF SYRINGE

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