"emblem of the physician [...] it is most unfortunate that the 'confusion' exists."" In an anonymous rebuttal contained in a letter to the editor published three months later in ""The Military Surgeon"" it was claimed that the late Col. John R. van Hoff was a member of the board that selected the emblem (""if he was not the one who was chiefly instrumental in its adoption""). In the letter to the editor reproduced by Emerson, the anonymous author claims According to this view the caduceus was not intended to be a medical symbol (and, though explained differently, this reflects the"
"Caduceus The caduceus (☤; ; Latin ""cādūceus"", from Greek ' ""herald's wand, or staff"") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead, and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves. Some accounts suggest that the"
"Caduceus as a symbol of medicine The caduceus (☤) is the traditional symbol of Hermes and features two snakes winding around an often winged staff. It is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius, especially in the United States. The two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with trade, eloquence, negotiation, alchemy, wisdom, and controversially, thievery, lying, and the passage into the underworld. The modern use of the caduceus as a symbol of medicine became established in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century as a result of"
"This staff later came into the possession of the god Hermes, along with its transformative powers. Another myth suggests that Hermes (or Mercury) saw two serpents entwined in mortal combat. Separating them with his wand he brought about peace between them, and as a result the wand with two serpents came to be seen as a sign of peace. In Rome, Livy refers to the ""caduceator"" who negotiated peace arrangements under the diplomatic protection of the caduceus he carried. In some vase paintings ancient depictions of the Greek ""kerukeion"" are somewhat different from the commonly seen modern representation. These representations"
"feature the two snakes atop the staff (or rod), crossed to create a circle with the heads of the snakes resembling horns. This old graphic form, with an additional crossbar to the staff, seems to have provided the basis for the graphical sign of Mercury (☿) used in Greek astrology from Late Antiquity. Caduceus is encoded in Unicode at code point U+2624: ☤. A simplified variant of the caduceus is to be found in dictionaries, indicating a “commercial term” entirely in keeping with the association of Hermes with commerce. In this form the staff is often depicted with two winglets"
"attached and the snakes are omitted (or reduced to a small ring in the middle). The Customs Service of the former German Democratic Republic employed the caduceus, bringing its implied associations with thresholds, translators, and commerce, in the service medals they issued their staff. The caduceus is also the symbol of the Customs Agency of Bulgaria. The emblem of the China Customs is a caduceus crossing with a golden key. Caduceus The caduceus (☤; ; Latin ""cādūceus"", from Greek ' ""herald's wand, or staff"") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian"
"oldest known imagery of the caduceus have their roots in a Mesopotamian origin with the Sumerian god Ningishzida whose symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 B.C. to 3000 B.C. As a symbolic object, it represents Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), and by extension trades, occupations, or undertakings associated with the god. In later Antiquity, the caduceus provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury. Thus, through its use in astrology, alchemy, and astronomy it has come to denote the planet and elemental metal of the same name. It is said"
"carried a staff wrapped with two snakes, known as the caduceus. This symbol later became associated with the Roman God, Mercury. Later, in the 7th century, the caduceus became associated with health and medicine due to its association with the Azoth, the alchemical ""universal solvent"". Cato the Elder despised every aspect of Greek society the Romans decided to mimic including sculptures, literature and medicine. Cato regarded the welcome given in Rome to Greek medicine and physicians as a major threat. In Rome, before there were doctors, the ""paterfamilias"" (head of the family) was responsible for treating the sick. Cato the"
"controversy. ""The Army and Navy Register"" of 28 June 1902 discusses the argument, which reflects the fact that a number of medical officers were unhappy with the choice. The article editor claims that the symbol was not chosen for its medical connotations and proposes the following symbolic interpretation: ""the rod represents power, the serpents stand for wisdom and the two wings imply diligence and activity, qualities which are undoubtedly possessed by our Medical officers."" The editor also points out that the majority of Medical Corps personnel are not even doctors. According to this line of reasoning, the caduceus was never"
"appears in a general medical context in the printer's device used by the Swiss medical printer Johann Frobenius (1460–1527), who depicted the staff entwined with serpents and surmounted by a dove, with a biblical epigraph in Greek, ""Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves"" (Matthew 10:16, here in the KJV translation), in keeping with the connotations of the caduceus as a symbol of messengers and publishers based on the association of Hermes or Mercury with eloquence and negotiation. Friedlander observed that Frobenius could hardly be considered a medical printer, as had previously been asserted, noting that in"
"snakes and sometimes it was crowned with a pair of wings and a ball, but the old form remained in use even when Hermes was associated with Mercury by the Romans. Hyginus explained the presence of snakes, saying that Hermes was traveling in Arcadia when he saw two snakes intertwined in battle. He put the caduceus between them and parted, and so said his staff would bring peace. The caduceus, historically, appeared with Hermes, and is documented among the Babylonians from about 3500 BC. The two snakes coiled around a stick was a symbol of the god Ningishzida, which served"
"Rod of Asclepius In Greek mythology, the Rod of Asclepius (, ; Unicode symbol: ⚕), also known as the Staff of Asclepius (sometimes also spelled Asklepios or Aesculapius) and as the asklepian, is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, a deity associated with healing and medicine. The symbol has continued to be used in modern times, where it is associated with medicine and health care, yet frequently confused with the staff of the god Hermes, the caduceus. Theories have been proposed about the Greek origin of the symbol and its implications. The Rod of Asclepius takes its"
"publishing and the role of Mercury as a messenger and scribe. He notes, however In any case, in Great Britain, as late as 1854, the distinction between the rod of Asclepius and the caduceus as symbols of two very different professions was apparently still quite clear. In his article ""On Tradesmen's Signs of London"" A.H. Burkitt notes that among the very old symbols still used in London at that time, which were based on associations between pagan gods and professions, ""we find Mercury, or his ""caduceus"", appropriate in trade, as indicating expedition. ""Esculapius"", his ""Serpent and staff"", or his ""cock"","
"they were paired opposites. (This motif is congruent with the phurba.) The wings at the head of the staff identified it as belonging to the winged messenger, Hermes, the Roman Mercury, who was the god of magic, diplomacy and rhetoric, of inventions and discoveries, the protector both of merchants and that allied occupation, to the mythographers' view, of thieves. It is however Hermes' role as psychopomp, the escort of newly deceased souls to the afterlife, that explains the origin of the snakes in the caduceus since this was also the role of the Sumerian entwined serpent god Ningizzida, with whom"
"previously used was the sword entwined by double winged serpents. This sword of caduceus was mistakenly used by the United States medical forces in place of the wand of Asclepius (one serpent without wings on a stick), a long-standing symbol of medical doctors and physicians. Other common symbols include Nursing pin A nursing pin is a type of badge, usually made of metal such as gold or silver, which is worn by nurses to identify the nursing school from which they graduated. They are traditionally presented to the newly graduated nurses by the faculty at a pinning ceremony as a"
"One is tau-shaped, with curved arms, surmounted by a small cross. The other has a top comprising a pair of sculptured serpents or dragons curled back to face each other, with a small cross between them. The symbolism in the latter case is of the bronze serpent made by Moses as related in . It is also reminiscent of the caduceus of Hermes or the rod of the ancient Greek god Asclepius, whose worship was centered around the Aegean, including Asia Minor, indicating the role of the bishop as healer of spiritual diseases. The staff of Moses is first mentioned"
"the World Tree and Axis mundi or ""World Axis"") by a staff such as those used by shamans. Examples of such staffs featuring coiled snakes in mythology are the caduceus of Hermes, the Rod of Asclepius, the staff of Moses, and the papyrus reeds and deity poles entwined by a single serpent Wadjet, dating to earlier than 3000 BCE. The oldest known representation of ""two"" snakes entwined around a rod is that of the Sumerian fertility god Ningizzida. Ningizzida was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head, eventually becoming a god of healing and magic. It is the"
"a staff is an ancient representation of Kundalini physiology. The staff represents the spinal column with the snake(s) being energy channels. In the case of two coiled snakes, they usually cross each other seven times, a possible reference to the seven energy centers called chakras. In Ancient Egypt, where the earliest written cultural records exist, the serpent appears from the beginning to the end of their mythology. Ra and Atum (""he who completes or perfects"") became the same god, ""Atum"", the ""counter-Ra,"" was associated with earth animals, including the serpent: Nehebkau (""he who harnesses the souls"") was the two headed"
"a series of spiral structures that take him from through the core of the earth, from the depths of Hell to celestial Paradise. It is also a central tenet in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. A special status accrues to the thing suspended: a serpent, a victim of crucifixion or hanging, a rod, a fruit, mistletoe. Derivations of this idea find form in the Rod of Asclepius, an emblem of the medical profession, and in the caduceus, an emblem of correspondence and commercial professions."
"wand. Some early sources say that this was the bat he received from Apollo, but others question the merits of this claim. It seems that there may have been two canes, one of a shepherd's staff, as stated in the Homeric Hymn, and the other a magic wand, according to some authors. His bat also came to be called kerykeion, the caduceus, in later times. Early depictions of the staff show it as a baton stick topped by a golden way that resembled the number eight, though sometimes with its top truncated and open. Later the staff had two intertwined"
"see Dracunculiasis. The term ""kerukeion"" denoted any herald's staff, not necessarily associated with Hermes in particular. In his study of the cult of Hermes, Lewis Richard Farnell (1909) assumed that the two snakes had simply developed out of ornaments of the shepherd's crook used by heralds as their staff. This view has been rejected by later authors pointing to parallel iconography in the Ancient Near East. It has been argued that the staff or wand entwined by two snakes was itself representing a god in the pre-anthropomorphic era. Like the herm or priapus, it would thus be a predecessor of"
"a staff entwined with garlands or ribbons. The garlands were later interpreted as snakes. The serpent also represents wisdom. Christ adjured his disciples to be as wise as snakes. The staff of Hermes (messenger of the gods) has two snakes entwined around a staff with wings. The staff of Asclepius has a single snake and no wings. Hamsa bird represents purity and the book stands for knowledge. The tree or branches with leaves represents prosperity. In 2005 alumni of GMC living in the United States founded the non-profit corporation Gandhi Medical College Global Alliance (GMCGA). This organization's goals are both"
"Hermes has sometimes been equated. In Late Antiquity, as the arcane study of alchemy developed, Mercury was understood to be the protector of those arts too and of arcane or occult ""Hermetic' information in general. Chemistry and medicines linked the rod of Hermes with the staff of the healer Asclepius, which was wound with a serpent; it was conflated with Mercury's rod, and the modern medical symbol—which should simply be the rod of Asclepius—often became Mercury's wand of commerce. Another version is used in alchemy whereas the snake is crucified, known as Nicolas Flamel's caduceus. Art historian Walter J. Friedlander,"
"is a continuation of the older Indo-European dragon-slayer motif. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1913) pointed out that the serpent as an attribute of both Hermes and Asclepius is a variant of the ""pre-historic semi-chthonic serpent hero known at Delphi as Python"", who in classical mythology is slain by Apollo. One Greek myth of origin of the caduceus is part of the story of Tiresias, who found two snakes copulating and killed the female with his staff. Tiresias was immediately turned into a woman, and so remained until he was able to repeat the act with the male snake seven years later."
"and son of Apollo, which bears only one snake. The rod of Asclepius was adopted by most Western doctors as a badge of their profession, but in several medical organizations of the United States, the caduceus took its place since the 18th century, although this use is declining. After the Renaissance the caduceus also appeared in the heraldic crests of several, and currently is a symbol of commerce. His sandals, called ""pédila"" by the Greeks and ""talaria"" by the Romans, were made of palm and myrtle branches but were described as beautiful, golden and immortal, made a sublime art, able"
"documented mistakes, misunderstandings and confusion. Before the ancient Romans and Greeks (about 2612 BCE), older representations from Syria and India of sticks and animals looking like serpents or worms are interpreted as a direct representation of traditional treatment of ""dracunculiasis"", the Guinea worm disease. While there is ample historical evidence of the use of the caduceus, or herald's staff, to represent Hermes or Mercury (and by extension commerce and negotiation), early evidence of any symbolic association between the caduceus and medicine or medical practice is scarce and ambiguous. It is likely linked to the alchemical ""universal solvent"", Azoth, the symbol"
"in ""The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine"" (1992) collected hundreds of examples of the caduceus and the rod of Asclepius and found that professional associations were just somewhat more likely to use the staff of Asclepius, while commercial organizations in the medical field were more likely to use the caduceus. Following the Christian context as a symbol for evil, serpents are sometimes featured in political propaganda. They were used to represent Jews in antisemitic propaganda. Snakes were also used to represent the evil side of drugs in such films as ""Narcotic"" and ""Narcotics:"
"staff symbol. This is a sacred image that appeared repeatedly in the later images and myths of cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, called the caduceus, which may have had separate origins. Her image also rears up from the staff of the ""flagpoles"" that are used to indicate deities, as seen in the hieroglyph for ""uraeus"" and for ""goddess"" in other places. The name Wadjet is derived from the term for the symbol of her domain, Lower Egypt, the ""papyrus"". Its hieroglyphs differ from those of the Green Crown or Deshret of Lower Egypt only by the determinative, which in the"
"female figures representing sources of wealth: A nude fisherwoman, holding aloft a fish; a farmer, clad in a rough dress and apron and holding a scythe and sheaf of wheat; and a kneeling weaver in rich robes, unrolling a carpet. Behind them are more symbols of industry, including an iron box and blacksmith's tongs. In the center of the mural floats a female representation of Commerce, greeting Prudence and holding a caduceus. The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes, god of commerce, in Greek mythology. In some ways, Cox's mural resembled the lunette he created for the Library of"
"tattoo of the caduceus, the staff carried by Hermes Trismegistus in Egyptian mythology and Hermes in Greek mythology. In his store is a shelf with other symbolic items that represent local businesses. The center section is devoted to education and depicts Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, in the form of a girl in the Woodstock Library. She is adorned with an owl on her shoulder and an olive branch necklace. She holds a tiger lily in her hand. Woodstock School's Mandarin Immersion Program is honored with an arc of Chinese characters above the girl's head, written on a chalkboard."
"the wand would wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life. By extension of its association with Mercury and Hermes, the caduceus is also a recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals. This association is ancient, and consistent from the Classical period to modern times. The caduceus is also used as a symbol representing printing, again by extension of the attributes of Mercury (in this case associated with writing and"
"of which was the caduceus. The Guildhall Museum in London holds a 3rd-century oculist's seal with caduceus symbols both top and bottom. The seal was apparently used to mark preparations of eye medicine. It is believed likely that rather than being evidence of a medical association ""per se"", this is rather an allusion to the words of the Greek poet Homer who described the caduceus as ""possessing the ability to charm the eyes of men"", which relates to the business of an oculist. Walter Friedlander proposed that early association of the caduceus with medicine might have derived from the association"
"Crosier A crosier (also known as a crozier, paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff carried by high-ranking Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran, United Methodist and Pentecostal prelates. Other typical insignia of many of these prelates are the mitre, the pectoral cross, and the episcopal ring. A crosier staff is a part of the tradition of Jewish Christianity. The origin of the crozier as a staff of authority is uncertain, but there were many secular and religious precedents in the ancient world. One example is the lituus, the traditional staff"