Name: Baina Maruhom Manalocon

Section: zoo106 UuVv

The caduceus is a symbol of a winged herald’s staff entwined by two snakes. The word itself comes via
Latin to English from the Greek word karykeion meaning herald and is linked to the Sanskrit word karu
meaning singer.

Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that the staff represents the one carried by Hermes as a symbol of
peace. Basically it was a badge of diplomatic immunity for heralds, the ambassadors of their day.
Hermes was the messenger or herald of the gods. So that makes sense.

The original caduceus was a rod or olive branch ending in two shoots and decorated with ribbons. Which
explains why we talk about offering the olive branch of peace to this day. Later the ribbons turned into
two entwined snakes. Hermes (in Roman mythology his equivalent is the ever speedy Mercury) had
winged shoes to denote his speed so that explains the addition of the wings.

This makes the caduceus the symbol of rapid diplomacy but where does medicine enter the picture?

For that you have to look at Asclepius who was the Greek god of medicine and healing. He kept it in the
family with his daughters – Hygieia (Hygiene – goddess of cleanliness), Iaso (goddess of recuperation),
Aceso (goddess of the healing process), Aglaea (goddess of beauty – there’s always one kid that won’t
follow the family business, I suppose), and Panacea (goddess of the universal remedy). He carried a staff
as his symbol too, but this one didn’t have wings and had only one serpent wound around it.
This similarity led to Hermes’ symbol, the caduceus being adopted by the medical community, including
the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Fun fact – the original Hippocratic Oath began “I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by
Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods …”

There is much confusion of the true symbol of medicine. The single staff with one snake-entwined is the
current American Medical Association logo. The histor y of this ancient symbol with a heritage stretching
over two millennia is shrouded in the fog of history.1 Many physicians as well as the public are unaware
there are two distinct symbols commonly used which have two different origins. For example in a 2014
survey in India revealed that only six percent of physicians knew that the Staff of Aesculapius was the
true symbol of medicine.2

Aesculapius was the god of medicine and was the son of Apollo, the god of healing (Figure 1). The Staff
of Aesculapius is a rough-hewn branch representing plants and growth entwined by a single snake.
Aesculapius was known as the god of medicine. He was killed by his grandfather, Zeus, with a
thunderbolt because not enough people were passing onto the underworld due to his healing skills.

Hermes (Mercury) was the messenger of the gods and known for carrying a staff known as the
Caduceus. The caduceus included two snakes topped off with a set of wings. The Caduceus is from the
Greek root meaning “herald’s wand” and was a badge of diplomatic ambassadors associated with
commerce, eloquence, alchemy, thievery, and lying.5

The popularity of the caduceus with two snakes is probably attributed to being more aesthetically
appealing than the single snake on the Staff of Aesculapius (Figure 2). The symmetry is more balanced
than the single snake.4 The caduceus if often used in medically related industries such as
pharmaceuticals and hospital supplies.

The snake is a powerful symbol.5 The ancients looked on the snake as a symbol of health and healing
because it could shed and regenerate its’s skin. The snake also produced venoms which killed many
parasites in the body. Many patients suffering from sickness such as depression were put into a temple
healing rooms containing snakes to shock them out of their stupor.
Hippocrates of Kos was a physician the father of Western Medicine, ca. 450-380 BCE. It was believed
that Hippocrates was a direct descendant of Aesculapius. Hopefully, most of you know the Hippocratic
Oath begins with the words “I swear by Apollo, the physician, and by Aesculapius….”

The question to ask is how did the caduceus become popular so quickly in the United States? The role of
the United States Army Medical Corps (USAMC) is crucial. In 1902, at the suggestion of an assistant
surgeon, Captain Frederick Reynolds, a new uniform code was established, and the caduceus became a
collar insignia for all personnel in the USAMC. From Captain Reynold’s correspondence with the Surgeon
General’s office, it is apparent that he was unaware of the distinction between the caduceus and
Aesculapius. He recommended the combined use of the “cock of Aesculapius” and the caduceus. His
statement to the Surgeon General that the Medical Corps of “several foreign powers, notably the
English” all displayed the caduceus was also erroneous. In fact, no other western medical military ser
vice of that time displayed the caduceus; they all used the Aesculapius symbol. Medical Associations in
Asia, India, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Africa, and Scandinavia all share the Staff of
Aesculapius.

Thus, the adoption of the caduceus by the USAMC seems to have been simply a misunderstanding of
classical mythologic iconography.2 Ironically, this mistake was nearly avoided. In March 1902, when
Captain Reynolds initially suggested the switch to the caduceus symbol, the Surgeon General, G.W.
Sternberg, dismissed his request outright. However, Captain Reynolds was persistent and, later that
year, he sent a second letter to the new Surgeon General, W.H. Forwood; this time, his proposal was
approved. Thus, on 17 July 1902, the “caduceus of gold” was adopted as the branch insignia of the
USAMC. This mistake did not go entirely unnoticed. In 1917, Lieutenant Colonel McCulloch, the librarian
to the Surgeon General, discovered original documents showing that the coat of arms adopted by the
USAMEDD a century earlier had displayed the Aesculapius and not the caduceus. McCulloch lamented
the error, but did nothing to correct the error.2 The U.S. Army Medical Corps and the U.S. Navy Medical
Corps still use the caduceus with the two snakes. The U.S Air Force Medical Service uses the Staff of
Aesculapius with one snake.

In conclusion:

The Staff of Aesculapius has represented medicine since 800 BCE, and most knowledgeable medical
authorities support its use as the symbol of medicine.
The New England Journal of Medicine, The American College of Physicians, and the World Health
Organization use the Staff of Aesculapius.

The Staff of Aesculapius has represented medicine since 800 BCE and most authorities support its use as
the symbol of medicine.

The Staff of Aesculapius is the only true symbol of medicine.

Footnotes

George Bohigian, MD, MSMA member since 1977, is Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology, Department of
Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.

History of parasitology

The history of parasitism is a long one. Parasites first evolved long before humans evolved, and early
writings from Egypt mention ones such as roundworms and tapeworms. In the 17th century, scientists
such as Francesco Redi and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek began to study them in greater detail and created
an early version of parasitology. Following new discoveries, observations, and refinements, the modern
field took shape in the 19th century, and since then further advancements have contributed to the field.

The reviews presented in this thematic series explore two historical aspects of parasitism: charting the
evolution of certain parasites throughout the years, and examining the history of parasitology in a
fascinating journey through the main scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in the discipline.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed and illustrated Giardia lamblia in 1681, and linked it to "his own
loose stools". This was the first protozoan parasite of humans that he recorded, and the first to be seen
under a microscope.[6]

A few years later, in 1687, the Italian biologists Giovanni Cosimo Bonomo and Diacinto Cestoni published
that scabies is caused by the parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei, marking scabies as the first disease of
humans with a known microscopic causative agent.[7] In the same publication, Esperienze Intorno alla
Generazione degl'Insetti (Experiences of the Generation of Insects), Francesco Redi also described ecto-
and endoparasites, illustrating ticks, the larvae of nasal flies of deer, and sheep liver fluke. His earlier
(1684) book Osservazioni intorno agli animali viventi che si trovano negli animali viventi (Observations
on Living Animals found in Living Animals) described and illustrated over 100 parasites including the
human roundworm.[8] He noted that parasites develop from eggs, contradicting the theory of
spontaneous generation.[9]

Modern parasitology developed in the 19th century with accurate observations by several researchers
and clinicians. In 1828, James Annersley described amoebiasis, protozoal infections of the intestines and
the liver, though the pathogen, Entamoeba histolytica, was not discovered until 1873 by Friedrich Lösch.
James Paget discovered the intestinal nematode Trichinella spiralis in humans in 1835. James McConnell
described the human liver fluke in 1875. A physician at the French naval hospital at Toulon, Louis Alexis
Normand, in 1876 researching the ailments of French soldiers returning from what is now Vietnam,
discovered the only known helminth that, without treatment, is capable of indefinitely reproducing
within a host and causes the disease strongyloidiasis.[3] Patrick Manson discovered the life cycle of
elephantiasis, caused by nematode worms transmitted by mosquitoes, in 1877. Manson further
predicted that the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, had a mosquito vector, and persuaded Ronald Ross to
investigate. Ross confirmed that the prediction was correct in 1897–1898. At the same time, Giovanni
Battista Grassi and others described the malaria parasite's life cycle stages in Anopheles mosquitoes.
Ross was controversially awarded the 1902 Nobel prize for his work, while Grassi was not.[6]

References:

https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/HistParasitol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitology

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6913859/

https://wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/caduceus-greek-myths-and-modern-medicine/