University of Michigan Medical and Nursing School - Aequanimitas Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Progress Withering's patient Dropsical sick ventured- yet fearing the long shadows the winding path the tangled brush into the dark forest of medieval England and came out well. O mystic age And Withering looked and saw cardamon and chamomile arnica gamboge spider web and valerian pareira brava gum ammoniac guaiacum shavings myrrh and foxglove aloes rhubarb clematis and tincture of bark white vitriol tartar of vitriol sal martis theriac and mithridate O dark time. But Withering? Withering thought, and pottered, and tested, and measured. Robert A. Green, M.D. My patient Asthmatic sick came, yet confident to the shining tower monument of scienc today and came out well. O sparkling world And I looked and saw epinephrine and susphrine and aminophylline sodium iodide and ether in oil. Tetracycline and penicillin and streptomycin. Hartman's sodium bicarbonate potassium chloride water and sugar. Bronchoscopy and oxygen and hydrocortisone. O golden age! e, of order, of reason l

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One Snake or Two Athenian coins dated from the third century B.C. show on the reverse a short staff with a single serpent coiled about it and on the obverse, the head of Aesklapius CAcsculapius in the Roman traditionb. Therefore there can be no doubt that the authentic Aesculapian emblem is a rough wooden cane of variable length, more or less loosely entwined by a serpent with its head upper- most. l l However, the familiar and popular emblem of medicine is not this Aesculapian staff and serpent, but rather the caduceus. This is ordinarily depicted as a short, slender wand, knobbed at its upper end, bearing two extended wings attached near the top, and symmetrically entwined by two small serpents whose heads, uppermost, stretch toward one another. I4 Richard Lewis The Latin etm'uceus is derived from the Greek kwfykeiml and originally from lcwfyx, a herald, the derivative thus meaning a heralds wand. ln Babylonian and Assyrian literature, Ningizzida for Ningish- zidal, a deity of fertilization and fruitfulness, but also of healing, functions as messenger of the Mother Goddess, Ishtar, to awaken life and vegetation in the springtime. This harbinger and proto- type of the Greek Hermes and the Roman Mercury is depicted with a symbol consisting of a rod, two snakes symmetrically twined around it, and two winged quadrupeds in prohle at the edges. Omit the quadrupeds but leave the wings, and the tpyical caduceus with two snakes appears. Even caducei from Egyptian tradition show two snakes. Thus the caduceus with two snakes far antedates that with one snake and should take precedence. On the other hand, those who wish to relate modern medicine directly to Hippocratic foundations may prefer one snake and no wings. As is true in the mythology of all peoples and is apparent in our own stories of johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyon, all deities derive multiple functions from numerous traditions and legends. Hermes, it seems, was the messenger of Zeus, the patron of fertility in plants and animals, the god of wind and air, patron of commerce on land and sea, god of roads and travellers, god of robbers, thieves and traitors, and guide of souls to Hades, In his earliest days he was also a god of the home and hearth, and as such had some healing attributes, Often he bears a caduceus symbolic in his several functions. The snake symbolized many ideas-wisdom, prudence, health, long life fimplied in the rejuvenation evident in his ecdysisl and also for anything in or under the ground. So Hermes carried the snakes when he escorted the dead to the lower regions. Interesting in this connection is that the Etruscan god of the underworld, Aite Ca corruption of the Greek Hades? held in his hand a simple rod around which one snake twined itself. What was a Hippocratic caduceus to the Greeks was a Plutonic caduceus to the Etruseans. lt has been almost universally agreed that the authentic and traditional emblem of medicine is the symbol of the Greek patron god of healing, a rough staff and a single serpent. How- ever, a provincial criticism of the caduceus with two snakes is improper. The medical mind thinks of symbols as having a one- to-one relationship with the objects they represent, such as a chemical symbol. However, those who study the nonscientihc aspects of sym- bolism assume automatically that any symbol may have multiple interpretations and that any concept may be expressed in a variety of symbols. Thus, attempts to introduce this nonscientific use of symbolism should expect to encounter the considerable solipism ofthe medical profession.

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