Why is there only one serpent in a DO Caduceus???

[H0mersimps0n]

http://www.aoa-net.org/

I was pondering, in a short stint of insanity, a small Caduceus tattoo on my body in celebration and honor of getting into medical school. Of course I would never tattoo myself with anything I did not completely research and understand. In my research of the Caduceus I've found the original has two serpents wrapped around Mercury's Wand (for those who don't know this significance I will post below some info I found)

Strangely, I was looking/thinking about my LECOM stuff and realized in the LECOM logo is a DO with a Caduceus with only one serpent around the wand??????????????????

Supposed to be significance of Caduceus:

1.) http://www.endicott-studio.com/forcaduc.html

2.) http://www.medhelpnet.com/caduceus.html

3.) http://www.procaduceo.com/en/info/Symbol.htm

These sources stink. Someone clear up the true story of the Caduceus and why DO's only represent ONE of the TWO "opposing forces held in balance" as described HERE


EDIT: is this for real??? LECOM??? HERE

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[luckystar]

OMG I actually remember this from this Greek mythology class I took. The staff with a single snake is actually the symbol of the Roman god of healing (forgot his name, it was really long, started with an "A"), and the double snaked staff, the caduceus, is Mercury's tool. In Greek, the word would mean "messenger". It was later associated with science and magic, even. Interesting stuff!

 

[docpetey]

Those are some SWEET websites...very informative. I have no idea why the DO symbol is a single serpent around a staff...but i think your first link explains that. It says that the single staff with a serpent is called the "Staff of Aesculapius".

"Medical purists suggest we should go back to the staff of Aesculapius, which is depicted as a single serpent coiled around a cypress branch.
The story of Aesculapius and his association with Hermes begins to make the story of the related symbols quite interesting. According to Greek myth, the god Apollo, in a fit of jealousy, killed his unfaithful mortal lover, a woman named Coronis (the Greek root of her name, korone, refers to a seabird, or a crow). When Apollo discovered that she was pregnant with his son, he had Hermes deliver the child while her body lay on the funeral pyre. The child was none other than Aesculapius.
Aesculapius was trained by the wise centaur, Chiron, to become a healer (since his father, Apollo, was the god of health), and over time, he became the god of medicine with his own cult and temples. Hippocrates, regarded as the father of western medicine, was a 20th-generation member of the cult of Aesculapius.
There are various explanations for why Aesculapius's symbol is the serpent coiled around a staff. The figurative interpretations consider the symbology (the snake's association with rebirth, the cypress branch as representing strength); and the utilitarian approach suggests that the snake was a poisonous one tied to the staff, its venom used for its medical properties. "

Sorry for posting something so long...I guess you could have just clicked on the link. Nonetheless, very informative and insightful. On a similar note, I was thinking of getting the Caduceus too with USNAVY or USAF under it (depending on which military scholarship I decided to do). Congrats and best of luck!

 

[H0mersimps0n]

Developmental Neurobio makes H0mer something something...

VERY TIRED!

Thanks for extracting that for my too-tired-to-read-all-that-greek-mythology ass...

Still doesn't really explain why DO's, or even who specifically, chose the single vs the double snake/serpent.

I love medical greek mythology, just need sleep...

 

[oceandocDO]

Dont have alot of time to look over your websites, but this may help.

http://www.md-do.org/caduceus.htm

- it's a good website put out by the NYCOM APEP students, who are foreign/offshore MDs who come to the states and complete a 3 year program for US D.O. licensure.

 

[H0mersimps0n]

This is great news! Wait until I tell my Ball Python and two corn snakes about what important symbols they are! My leopard gecko's will probably feel left out though...

UGH I need sleep.

 

[H0mersimps0n]

as the MD/DO philosophies differ so should their symbols I guess...

 

[Doctor Peloncito]

This is really funny, I just asked my wife last week if she wanted to go get a tatoo with me. I wanted to get the Staff of Asclepius. My understanding is that the proper symbol for medicine is the Staff of A. In the early part of last century, the caduceus was adopted by the Army Medical Corps. Ambulances in WWI carried the Caduceus because it was a symbol of diplomacy (kindof like the Red Cross symbol.) Ambulances in the US began to carry the symbol as well and from there it began to be misused. I found this site on google:

Caduceus vs Staff of Asclepius

 

[phil413ru]

Here is what I have been told...

MD schools are not SUPPOSED to have two serpants. The student tour guide at U of MN said this is a common MISTAKE. She said regular civilian med schools should only have one serpant.

The two serpants are for military medical personal--to represent their dual role as physician and in military. (For instance, Army Medical Corp branch insignia is the Madical cadius with two serpeants. One side represents medical field, other military. Other medical field --vet, dental, nurse, medical service, and medical specialist also have medical cadius, but with N for nurse, V for vet, D for dental...etc)

This is what I have been told--don't quote me on it because I have not researched it yet.

 

[Doctor Peloncito]

There seems to be a bit of confusion about whether the staff should have two snakes or one and whether the staff should have wings. Let me clear this up a little. The Caduceus is the winged rod of mercury. The snakes come from a story where mercury (or hermes) threw the rod in between two fighting snakes. The stakes wrapped themselves around it. The Staff of Asclepius (?sclepius, Asklepios) is a wooden staff (cypress) with a snake wrapped around it. They are two different things. There is no caduceus with one snake, nor is there a Staff of Asclepius with two.

Spend ten minutes on google and you'll figure it out.

 

[M00se]

Thw World Health Organization also uses the correct and less cool looking Staff of A________. In theory, only US military docs should wear the Caducius since it was formally and mistakenly adopted by the military in 1900. The Staff of Aesculapius was after all the symbol of the cult/religion that Hippocrates beloged to. The Caducius was a printers mark on some of the first texts which happened to be medical- so the legend is. This may be one of the reasons why the staff of the Messenger of the Gods who was also the God of Thieves and Guider of the Dead to Hades somehow became associated with medicine.

Moose

I still think the Caducius would look cooler as a tatoo.

 

[DrZippy2b]

I wanted to get a caduceus or Staff of A___ tatoo on my foot, but I am planning to wait until I graduate. I don't want to jinx myself.

 

[Doctor Peloncito]

I have the same reservations Zippy

 

[H0mersimps0n]

thats the reason I don't have one already...

 

[Docgeorge]

It would be a b!tch to have to explain that tatoo, if some how you jinxed your self.

 

[RockandRolldoc]

Short simple question.......

Short simple answer = Who Cares?

 

[H0mersimps0n]

refresher

 

[DrQuinn]

A couple clarifications...

The two snakes IS from the Army Medical Corps, adopted a long time ago...

one urban legend, perhaps, says that the reason the symbol became associated with medicine is that there is a parasitic disease (can't remember the name, its been three years since parasitology), where a worm burrows underneath the skin, and the only way to kill it is to pull it out slowly (over weeks). What the ancient medicine-men used to do was to wrap a stick around your leg, and tie the head (or tail?) of the worm to the stick, twist the stick 1 cm, and the next day do the same until the worm came out. If you pulled out the worm all at once, it would come apart, and it would necrose under the skin with worse consequences. That is why you see the snake wrapped around the stick! Now for the two versus one, I'm not sure about that...

Q

 

[Doctor Peloncito]

Originally posted by QuinnNSU
A couple clarifications...

The two snakes IS from the Army Medical Corps, adopted a long time ago...

...Now for the two versus one, I'm not sure about that...

Q

Quinn,

I know you are a busy MS4 soon to be PGY1, but I also can assume from previous posts that you are pretty intelligent. If you had just read through the entire thread (or at least skimmed), you would have seen that this has been explained completely. The Caduceus and the Staff of Asclepius are two competely different entities. The Caduceus was the staff of Hermes (or mercury depending on the source of your mythology). He was the god of commerce and thieves. It has long been used as a symbol for business and commerce in europe. Now somewhere around the turn of the last century, the Army Medical Corps began to use it because it also represented diplomacy (kind of like the red cross, ie. don't shoot at the guys wearing the caduceus). After its prominent display during WWI on battlefield ambulances, the private American ambulances began to use it as well. From there, it is history. The medical community errantly took it up as its universal symbol when the Staff of Asclepius should be used since Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing.

I have read articles discussing the worm theory and I think it is a mistake to classify this as an urban legend. It is simply congecture and speculation put forward by some historians. An urban legend is something that is proved to be a lie spread by the communities of sheeple out there in the world.

WBDO

 

[H0mersimps0n]

wannabe to the rescue!

too bad we never got to meet buddy...

 

[DO_messenger]

so like all of this means that MD's and DO's CAN use the double snake... but they should be a military doctor.... i.e. the single/double snake does not differentiate from MD or DO...

interesting..

 

[Doctor Peloncito]

Right. Basically, the military uses the Caduceus (two snakes, golden winged rod) because of its relationship to commerce/diplomacy whereas the Staff of Asclepius (cypress staff with a single snake wrapped around it) is the universal symbol of medicine (MD/DO/RN/PT...whatever) because of its relationship to Asclepius (the god of medicine and healing).

 

[DOtobe]

Originally posted by H0mersimps0n

EDIT: is this for real??? LECOM??? HERE

Scary, isn't it? I can't believe I go to a school that would consider building statues like that.

 

[Tyra]

Quinn-- i feel u. I read the same thing--don't remember where--think it was a biology text book or something?? but the name was the New Guinnea worm.... just if u wanted to know...