West Virginia University School of Medicine - Pylon Yearbook (Morgantown, WV)

Page 3 text:

UMtoJxrusnj i MSb p DATE DUE JAN 9. 4 1 1 MAY 3 1 2009 DEMCO. INC. 38-2931

Page 5 text:

ZM8 SZAtt 07 ASKCSPJOS The staff of Asklepios is the only true symbol of medicine. Asklepios, whose name was later changed by the Romans to Asclepius and Aes- culapius, was a Greek physician. He so em- bodied the ideal attributes of a healer that, after his death, his countrymen spoke of him as a great departed hero. As frequently hap- pened in Greek mythology, this exemplary healer later attained the status of a god. A cult began in Thessaly and temples were erected to Asklepios in many parts of Greece, near healing springs or on high mountains. The practice of sleeping in these sanctuaries was very common, for it was supposed that the god wrought cures or prescribed remedies to the sick in their dreams. His cult was intro- duced to Rome in the third century before Christ to relieve a pestilence. Asklepios is usually represented in ancient sculpture and on cairns with a staff and a ser- pent coiled around it. The staff or rod, origin- ally taken from a tree, symbolizes the mystery of plant growth. By representing the vegetable kingdom, the rod incorporates the primeval force of the earth and the imperishability of life. With his rod, the divine physician was able to cure the sick and restore the life of the earth to them. The serpent, who lives in the earth, was thought to possess the reinvigorating energy of the earth and to be able to convey this energy to the sick. It, therefore, along with the rod, stood for the life of the earth and its healing powers. The caduceus, a winged staff with intertwined serpents, is the magic wand of Hermes or Mercury, the messenger of the gods and the patron of business. During the Renais- sance, Hermes became associated with alchemy. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the fields of alchemy, chemistry, pharmacy and medicine were not well demarcated, and the fields overlapped to some extent. Now that Hermes had entered the fields of chemistry and pharmacy via alchemy, his symbol, the caduceus, came to be regarded as a medicopharmaceutical emblem. Thus the caduceus, the standard of the patron of business, does have a weak relation- ship to the field of medicine. However, it pales when compared with the staff of Asklepios as the symbol of the finest attributes of the medical profession.