MEDICAL SYMBOLISM. 
BY T. S. SOZINSKEY., M. D„ 
OF PHILADELPHIA. 
Reprint from the Medical and Surgical Reporter. [Reprinted from the Medical and Surgical Reporter of January 5th & 12th, 1884. ] 
MEDICAL SYMBOLISM. 
BY T. S. SOZ1NSKEY, M. D., 
or1 Philadelphia. 
It has been well said by some one that things 
are not always what they seem. In the interest- 
ment of it would require much space ; but I will 
endeavor, in a somewhat desultory way, to go 
into it sufficiently to instruct a little, as well as 
show that it is an interesting study. 
Now, to begin with, I deem it proper to define a 
few terms, the meaning of which should be under- 
stood, or confusion of ideas will likely be experi- 
enced. In giving the article the title of " Medical 
Symbolism," I have intended the word symbol- 
ism to be taken in its widest sense ; I desire it to 
be taken as of much the same signification as em- 
blem is popularly ; that is, a figure having a dif- 
ferent meaning besides the visible one-a mean- 
ing which to be perceived calls for exercise of the 
imagination. Mackenzie* and other authorities, 
however, hold the word emblem to be properly 
applicable only to a figure of two or more parts. 
In a device there is a motto which the picture por- 
trays more or less clearly. Allegory is almost 
synonymous with emblem, in its restricted sense, 
and is used only in reference to a composite figure, 
the chief consideration in which is the beauty of 
form. In an allegorical figure, or composition, 
the elements of it are attributes, some of which 
are essential and some conventional. Essential 
attributes alone are, strictly speaking, symbols. 
Thus in a representation of the Goddess of Lib- 
erty, the cap is not a symbol, it is a conventional 
attribute. If a poppy be taken to represent 
sleep, it is a symbol. In Fairholt's work j and 
others, the serpent in medicine is said not to be a 
symbol; but this is not true, if it be taken to 
represent the god of medicine, which was done, as 
I have intimated above, by the Romans. Evi- 
dently, if the word symbol were taken as of this 
narrow meaning, there are very few general medi- 
cal symbols. In taking it, as I do in this article, 
to be of much the same meaning as emblem, a 
word applicable to any mystic figure or any kind 
of attribute, I do no more than Fairholt says it 
would be wise to always do. Any figure, then, 
Fig. 1. 
ing and extensive field of symbolic knowledge this 
is, of all places, most emphatically true. Here is 
a figure (No. 2). Ask an uninitiated person to 
look at it and state what he sees, 
and his reply will likely be, "A 
snake partly coiled, resting on a 
pedestal." That is, indeed, sim- 
ply what it is ; but to the initiated 
it is representative of another and 
far different thing. Before such a 
figure, many a human being, dis- 
eased and suffering, has prostrated 
himself and offered up supplications for relief; to 
generations of the people of the Eternal City, and 
regions far from, as well as near to, the famous 
Tiber, it appeared a god, the great god of " the 
divine art." It is a symbol of medicine. 
In my incursions into the field of symbolic 
knowledge, I have made notes, among which are 
some pertaining to medicine. But little appearing 
to be generally known about medical symbolism, 
it has occurred to the Editor of the Reporter, as 
well as myself, that an article on the subject 
would be read with pleasure and profit by many. 
I do not propose to treat the matter, however, 
either systematically or exhaustively; such treat- 
Fig. 2. 
* Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, 
f A Dictionary of Terms of Art. 2 
having another besides its ordinary signification, 
may be regarded as a symbol. 
I have said that the god of medicine was repre- 
sented and worshipped by the Romans in the 
form of a snake or serpent; this curious creature 
was regarded by them as being, to all intents and 
purposes, JEsculapius himself. As is very gen- 
erally known, medicine did not receive a great deal 
of attention, by that extraordinary people, until 
a comparatively late date. It was in the year 
293 before the Christian era that a move was 
made to introduce the worship of the god of 
medicine. This was ordered by the Sibylline 
Books, in order to cut short a great pestilence. 
How this was done we are graphically told by 
Ovid.* It is a remarkable story and must be 
known, if one would understand, according to 
some, the reason why the god was given the ser- 
pentine form, the serpent being generally regarded 
as only an attribute of him at his chief residence, 
the great JEsclepion or Temple or Health at Epi- 
daurus, his birthplace. A commission on sailing 
around to the Grecian city, to bring home with 
them the god, were led for some reason or other 
to believe that a snake, or rather viper, which 
entered the ship, was the divine personage they 
were sent for. On returning with this precious 
being on board, it, or rather he, took up his abode 
on an islandf in the Tiber, where he was subse- 
quently worshiped, a great temple being erected 
for him. 
What species of serpent it was which played 
the important part just indicated, is an interesting 
matter. In Pliny's t work it is said: "The JEscu- 
lapian snake was first brought to Rome from Epi- 
daurus, but at the present day it is very commonly 
reared in Our houses even, so much so, indeed, 
that if the breed were not kept down, by the fre- 
quent conflagrations, it would be impossible to make 
head agains the rapid increase of them." From 
this statement one may justly infer that it was 
not a decidedly venomous snake. A species of 
viper still common in Italy is believed to be the 
identical reptile. It reaches a length of about 
two feet. It has been described under the name 
of Columber 2Esculapii. It is spoken of under 
this name in Cuvier's great work.* That learned 
naturalist says that it is more bulky and not so 
long as the col. elaphsas, or four-striped adder, 
and continues, " It is brown above; strawy yellow 
beneath and on the sides; and the scales of the 
back are nearly smooth." After the brief de- 
scription he adds, "It is that which the ancients 
have represented in their statues of JEsculapius; 
and it is probable that the serpent of Epidaurus 
was of this species. N. B.-The col. sesculapii of 
Linnaeus is a totally different species, and belongs 
to America." The columber aesculapii, Sh. is 
closely related, if not identical with the viper 
communis, or pelias berus, of which Figuier says,f 
"It is not improbable that it is the echis of Aris- 
totle and the vipera of Virgil, as it is the manaso 
of the Italians, the adder of the country people of 
England and Scotland, and the vipere of France." 
It, of course, follows from what has just been 
said that the adder spoken of is the serpent 
which should always be shown in medical sym- 
bolism. 
I would ask the reader to turn with me now to 
the shore of the Saronic bay, to the Peloponnesian 
city Epidaurus, a place dearer than Salerno, or 
even Cos, to every lover of the annals, historical 
and legendary, of the healing art. There is but 
little about it at present to indicate its ancient 
glory. J But for the ruins in the vicinity and the 
imperishable records we have of them, one would 
not care to linger long about the scraggy village. 
It is chiefly the pages of Pausanias,|| that observ- 
ing and inquisitive old Grecian traveller, which 
tell the physician most of what is interesting to 
him about the place. On the plain five miles or so 
west of the town, was the great seat of worship of 
JEsculapins, the primary and perhaps greatest 
temple of the god of medicine, to which crowds 
came for ages from all parts of Greece. The Epi- 
daurean oracle is gone ; it is silent as the vanished 
millions who sought the means of health and life 
from it; but an impress of it is still felt, and will 
last forevermore. To this long-renowned sanatory 
retreat one must turn who wishes to become ac- 
quainted with the most important of medical sym- 
bols. 
The statue of JSsculapius, at Epidaurus, was a 
* Metamorphoses, b. xv. 
fin his "Historia Naturalis," Pliny states that "Temples 
of Health were placed by the Romans without the city, and 
afterwards on an island." This was customary with 
the Greeks, too. They did not relish much more 
than the Romans having such institutions in their midst. 
The Epidaurean Oracle was without the town, and other 
notable ones, such as Rhodes, Cnidus and Cos, were, as the 
names indicate, on islands of comparatively small size. I 
need hardly say that there are excellent sanitary reasons 
for placing hospitals in the country, and especially on insu- 
lar sites. 
J Op. cit. 
* Le RCgne Animal. 
f Reptiles and Birds. 
J Vide Leake's "Travels in the Morea.'' 
• || Itinerary of Greece (Hellados Periegesis). 3 
remarkable piece of work, by Thrasymedes. Time 
has put it, with many another treasure, out of 
sight. It consisted of ivory and gold. When 
Pausanias visited the place, which was in the 
second century of our era, he drew from the in- 
habitants an interesting account of it. The figure 
was manly and handsome, Zeus-like. It was seated 
on a throne. One hand rested on the head of a ser- 
pent, and in the other was a staff. By the side of 
the god, lay a dog. In this, one has a very expres- 
sive allegorical representation of the healing art. 
The statues of TEsculapius were, for the most 
part, ideal, and as might consequently be ex- 
pected, varied greatly in their details; but there 
was a serpent connected with each of them, in 
one way or another. In some the great healer is 
represented as a bearded old man. The beard was 
occasionally absent, which I think was wise ; for 
the conscientious physician should have nothing 
about him, which he can dispense with, which 
would serve to spread disease. It is said that 
Dionysius, king of Sicily, on conquering the 
Morea, ordered the golden beard to be taken off 
the Epidaurean god, for the peculiar reason that 
"it was unbecoming and unjust for the son to 
have a beard when the father [Apollo]1 had 
none." In the famous colossal head now and 
since 1866 in the British Museum, which seems 
to be that of a splendidly developed man in his 
prime (what it should be as that of the image of 
an ideal physician), thl beard is of but moderate 
length, and is waved like the somewhat long hair. 
This noble remnant of Greek art, one of the finest 
in the museum, which is saying a great deal, 
Nichols* regards " as scarcely less remarkable " 
than the celebrated "Venus of Milo" in the 
Louvre, both of which were found, the former in 
1828, in the island of Melos, and came originally, 
it is surmised, from Cnidus, the seat of an aesclep- 
ion, with those of Rhodes and Cos, of great re- 
nown in the fifth century before the Christian era. 
In the left hand of some figures of the god there 
is a scroll-a very appropriate symbol-and in 
connection with not a few representations of him, 
a little child, or dwarf, wrapped in a mantle, 
stood by his side. Occasionally a cock, or crow, 
or goat, was given. 
As I have said, a serpent was always shown in 
the representations of kEsculapius. It is, in some 
cases, coiled around a post,] by the side of which 
the god stands, and in some it is coiled around a 
staff, which he holds in his hand. The staff is 
sometimes given as knotty. 
In this connection I may speak specially about 
the staff and snake, as it is usually designated, of 
the god, about which there seems to be consider- 
able misconception and confusion prevailing. As 
I have stated, the serpent is only sometimes rep- 
resented as coiled around the staff, an attribute, 
indeed, which is not always present. Now, when 
the staff is given bearing a serpent, it must not 
be regarded as a magic wand, for JEsculapius had 
nothing of the kind. A very different personage, 
Mercury, had a wand, or rather caduceus, which, 
strange to say, is taken by many to be a symbol 
of medicine. That is, Mercury's caduceus, which 
is not of medical import at all, is accorded to 
JEsculapius, who really had none. I repeat, there 
is no such a thing as an TEsculapian wand, if 
wand be taken as meaning a rod or staff 
possessed of mysterious power. A staff 
with a serpent twined around it, how- 
ever, is an expressive medical symbol. 
It may properly be regarded as an em- 
blem of JEsculapius. I give a good ex- 
ample in Fig. 3, copied from a plate in 
De Wilde's rare old work.* The serpent 
may be taken as a symbol of the god, 
and the staff as one to indicate the per- 
ambulatory character of the physician's 
.calling. Regarding the knots as expres- 
sive of difficulties in the art and practice 
of medicine is very fanciful, but not in- 
frequently done. 
I deem it not amiss to give a cut (Fig. 4), of the 
caduceus of Mercury, in the hope of better re- 
moving misapprehension in regard to it. It is 
given as shown, but not very correctly, on a seal 
used by the United States Marine Hospital Service. 
It is an appropriate trade sym- 
bol, Mercury being the god of 
commerce as well as the mes- 
senger of the gods ; but it is 
more especially a symbol of 
peace, the god being the great 
peace-maker. Traditional his- 
tory relates that in his ram- 
bles one day, he saw two 
snakes fighting, and laying his 
wand, which was originally an olive branch, be- 
tween them, was delighted to discover that it had 
the power of putting an end to the encounter. 
Hence the presence on the wand of the two ser- 
pents, which, of course, it would be wise to rep- 
resent as belligerent. Mercury being an adept 
Fig. 3. 
Fig. 4. 
* Handybook of the British Museum, 1870. An excellent 
engraving of the head appears as the frontispiece. 
fThis, or even the staff, may be a remnant of tfee-wor 
ship. Vide infra. 
* Gemma: Select®. Amsterdam, 1703. 4 
thief, was regarded as the god of rogues ; from 
which fact taking his caduceus as a symbol of 
medicine is a left-hand sort of compliment to the 
physician, even if he is one who regards his pro- 
fession chiefly as a trade. And this brings to 
mind a very truthful remark of Bacon*, namely, 
" If physic be a trade, it is the trade of all others 
the most exactly cut out for a rogue." Another 
function of Mercury, which I may mention, was 
to attend to dying persons, to unloose their souls 
and drive "them down the Stygian waves," as 
we are told by Virgil.f It is hardly a part of the 
physician's proper function, I submit, to do that. 
How to account for the association of the serpent 
with the god of medicine is a trifle puzzling to 
many.} Saying that it is symbolic of prudence 
and renovation is not quite satisfactory, although 
it may be properly taken as of such import. "As 
wise as a serpent," is an everyday saying. Cast- 
ing of the skin is said to be the basis of the idea 
of renovation or rejuvenescence. Taking it as 
expressive of the idea of convalescence is not out 
of the way, for it undergoes, every spring, a re- 
markable change from a state of lethargy to one of 
active life, under the strengthening rays of 
Apollo himself, as will be seen later, the original 
Grecian god of medicine. This notion is well por- 
trayed in Mrs. Palliser's interesting work,|| in the 
device of the Rinovati Academy. 
The commonness of a tame, but somewhat ven- 
omous serpent, the adder already spoken of, 
about and in the Epidaurean Temple of JEscula- 
pius, has been advanced as explaining the asso- 
ciation of the reptile with medicine. This may 
have had something to do with it. 
After referring to some strange curative vir- 
tues, attributed to vipers, says: "Hence 
it is that the snake is consecrated to JEsculapius." 
Here is one of the examples given by the rather 
credulous old Roman : "It is a w.ell-known fact 
that all injuries inflicted by serpents and those 
even of an otherwise incurable nature, it is an ex- 
cellent remedy to apply the entrails of the serpent 
itself to the wound." The principle is evidently 
the same as that illustrated in applying a hair of 
the dog to cure the wound caused by the animal. 
Still another reason tor the association has 
sprung from the reputed power of the serpent to 
discover herbs of curative virtues. This is 
largely based on a traditional episode in the his- 
tory of JEsculapius, which reminds one of the 
German story of the Snake Leaves, told by 
Grimm.* It seems that on one occasion while 
thinking what treatment to resort to in the case of 
one of- his patients, Glancus, a serpent appearing 
and twining itself around his staff, he killed it, 
whereupon another came, bearing in its mouth 
an herb with which it restored the dead one 
to life. The god used the same herb with simi- 
lar effect on the human [subject. The miracu- 
lous feature of this explanation puts it on a par 
with such as one would expect from the Indians, 
whose "medicine man," too, is apt to have a 
snake at hand, as he is also, I may say, to make 
himself bird-headed, f reminding one of the 
Egyptian Thoth, and others. 
I am of the belief, however, that the remark- 
able association of the serpent with the god of 
healing must be largely explained in yet another 
way. There is good reason to hold that we have 
iu it a remnant of serpent-worship, a wonderfully 
wide-spread cultus, still kept up by the Nagas 
(literally snakes) of India,} and others. Epidau- 
rus was open to frequent communication with 
Egypt, where the serpent played a great religious 
role, being in different forms representative of 
good and evil. Says Sharfe in his excellent little 
work,|| "The venomous snakes and those that 
were not venomous were alike honored, the first 
as the gods of evil, and the second, as gods or 
rather goddesses of good." The serpent of good 
is always represented as prevailing. The creator 
of the world was given a serpentine form. The 
sect of Gnostics, called Ophitae, taking the world 
to be evil, attributed its creation to the serpent of 
evil, Eve's acquaintance. Evil in the shape of 
disease might be expected to be overcome by the 
serpent of good. 
One can advance sufficient evidence to indicate 
with considerable conclusiveness that the Egyp- 
tians were in the habit of looking to a serpentine 
divinity for the cure of disease. In his work, 
already quoted from, Sharpe gives a figure of a 
♦Advancement of Learning. 
t jEneid, b. iv. 
fit is worth while to remark that, in his life of Cleomenes, 
Plutarch states that it was believed that after death evapor- 
ation of "the marrow" produces serpents, and that "the 
ancients knowing this doctrine, appropriated the serpent, 
rather than any other animal, to heroes." 
|| Historic Devices, Badges and War-cries. 
If Op. cit. 
* Household Tales. 
t Vide engraving in " False Gods " by F. S. Dobbins. 
I Says Dr. Birdwood, in his "Indian Arts": "The worship 
of the snake still survives everywhere in India, and at 
Nagpur was until very recently a public danger, from the 
manner in which the city was allowed to be overrun with 
cobras." 
| Egyptian Mythology. 5 
snake, wearing the crown of Upper and Lower 
Egypt,* on a pole, a cut of which is reproduced 
here : (Fig. 5), which was carried 
in the periodical airing procession of 
the Egyptian divinities. Now, it is 
more than probable that Moses was 
very familiar with this figure and 
its import ; but at any rate, we find 
him making an imitation of it, and 
for what purpose ? The story is 
told in the Bible,f and runs thus : 
" And Moses made a serpent of 
brass and put it upon a pole ; and 
it came to pass that if a serpent 
had bitten any man, when he be- 
held the serpent of brass he 
lived.Verily, there is the healer 
in essentially the same form in 
which he was embodied by the Ro- 
mans. Hence, it is very certain 
that the serpent as a symbol of 
medicine took shape before the time, 
of JEsculapius, long before, for 
Moses lived nearly 400 years earlier 
than he, and as we have just seen, it was likely 
far from new at his time. 
But the association of the serpent with JEscula- 
pius, as a remnant of a form of serpent-worship, 
may have come as a direct inheritance, like the 
laurel, from Apollo, the sun-god, with whom, as 
we know, one was, almost everywhere, sacred. 
Mr. C. F. Keary maintains, in his able work,|| 
that the tree, mountain and river were the three 
great primitive fetich-gods of the early world, 
and forcibly argues tint a serpent was the symbol 
of the last, which, it may be noted, is nearly al- 
ways a life-giving power. Without pretending to 
account for their original worship, he "takes it 
for certain that at a very early time rivers became 
through symbolism confounded with serpents." 
Remnants of these fetichisms are preserved in 
later and more abstract cults, and may be largely 
found in Indo-European mythologies. The mon- 
strous python which Apollo encountered and de- 
stroyed at Delphi was simply a river, and a harm- 
ful one, ulteriorly a river of death. The Far- 
Darter, through his arrows (rays), dried up the 
water. "The reptile was, we know," says Mr. 
Keary, " before all things sacred to AEsculapius, 
and was kept in his house, as for example in the 
great temple of Epidaurus. It would seem that 
the sun-god has the special mission of overcoming 
and absorbing into himself this form of fetich. 
This is why Apollo slays the python, and why the 
snake is sacred to 2Esculapius." Between tree- 
and serpent-worship the connection is close, as 
one would expect from the close connection in na- 
ture between rivers and trees. 
It is proper to state, although I must be brief, 
that there are other ways of explaining serpent- 
worship besides that so ably advocated by Mr. 
Keary. It is suggested by Fergusson* that the 
longevity of the reptile may be one reason for it, 
and its mysterious and deadly power another. 
One of the most tenable theories is the phallic, f 
and another which is held by many is the astro- 
nomic. Says Lillie, J "Like all old religious 
ideas, the serpent symbol was probably in the 
first instance astronomical. Two thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-six years before Christ, a 
large star was within one degree of the celestial 
pole. This was the a of Draco." Much interest 
was taken in it, as readers of the works of Messrs. 
Piazzi Smyth and Proctor are aware. The con- 
stellation of Draco, or Dragon, was represented in 
ancient astronomy by a serpent twined round a 
tree, the prototype of which likely was the Ascle- 
pias acidi, the source of soma, the original intoxi- 
cant of the Aryans. With Draco, the Supreme 
Being and paradise were associated. Two snakes 
on a staff, an emblem very similar to the caduceus 
of Hermes or Mercury (the wind god), constitute 
the Tria Ratna of Buddhism, " the three precious 
symbols of the faith." "These very ancient 
symbols," says Lillie, "are Buddhist symbols, 
but they plainly indicate also the inner teaching 
of Vedism, the father and mother and the solar 
1 golden germ.' " The symbol of Draca may be the 
prototype of Serapis, the serpent-encircled Egyp- 
tian god, as well as the staff and climbing serpent 
of yEsculapius. I may add that Plutarch |[ holds 
that the serpent-symbol of the supreme god, 
Urasus, was the cobra di capello (naja tripudians), 
the rather venomous viper still worshipped in 
India. 
As several medical symbols cannot be under 
stood without a knowledge of the history of the 
half-mythical 2Esculapius, I will explain those 
Fig. 5. 
*Vide description in Exodus xxviii. and xxix. 
■[■Numbers xxi. 9. 
I This idol was not appreciated only for a time, for it is 
said of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 4) that " he removed the 
high places and brake the images and cut down the groves, 
and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made; 
for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense 
to it: and he called it Nehushtan." 
5 Outlines of Primitive Belief. 
* Tree and Serpent Worship. 
' f Vide note later. 
I Buddha and Early Buddhism. 
|| Isis and Osiris. 6 
calling for special notice in connection with a sort 
of sketch of the god. An extremely remarkable 
history it is, and certainly of much interest to all 
medical readers. 
As was a rather common event in the days of 
yore, if ancient writers are to be believed, Aescu- 
lapius was the offspring of an attractive young 
virgin named Coronis, a native of Thessaly, by 
one of the immortal gods, the gallant Apollo 
himself, who, as I have stated above, was, in con- 
nection with his other functions, the Grecian god 
of medicine until his healing and life-giving pow- 
ers were exercised by his son.* We learn from 
Homer,f that during the progress of the Trojan 
war, medical service was not infrequently invoked 
from Apollo (Pason). Thus he was called on when 
the Lycian chief, Sarpedon, was wounded- 
" Apollo heard; and suppliant as he stood, 
His heavenly hand restrained the flux of blood; 
He drew the dolors from the wounded part, 
And breathed a spirit in his rising heart." 
The famous Hippocratic oath, which was taken 
by the medical student at his entrance on the 
study, begins with these words ; J "I swear by 
Apollo, the physician, by JEsculapius, by his 
daughters, Hygeia and Pomaria, and all the gods 
and goddesses." Bacon ventures to say || that it was 
well for the poets "to conjoin music and medicine 
in Apollo, because the office of medicine is but to 
tune this curious harp of man's body and reduce 
it to harmony." 
The laurel crown given to Aesculapius has been 
held by some to have been accorded to him, be- 
cause he was the son of Apollo, the laurel being 
specially consecrated to the latter. Another way 
of accounting for it, is as stated by Tooke,§ "be- 
cause that tree is powerful in curing many dis- 
eases." 
The name of the mother of AEsculapius, Coronis, 
in Greek signifies crow. This is given as the 
reason why the crow was consecrated to the god. 
Another reason is because that watchful bird 
brought the unpleasant news to Apollo that the 
sly Coronis was secretly keeping company with a 
youth of her neighborhood (Ischys)-a piece of 
service which was unkindly rewarded by changing 
the tale-bearer from white to black, put perma- 
nently in mourning for the unfaithful maid. 
In this connection I may remark that Thessaly, 
a region in which poisonous herbs abounded, was 
regarded by some, as, for example, Strabo, as the 
place of nativity of 2Esculapius, as well as his 
mother. Referring to this, Blackie* says: "That 
the knowledge of medicine came to the Greeks 
originally from Thessaly, one of the earliest seats 
of Hellenic civilization, is evident from the pedi- 
gree of Coronis." However this may be, it is in- 
teresting to observe that there is testimony in 
Homer going to show that Egyptian medicine was 
in repute during the Homeric age. Thus, to re- 
move the grief and rage caused by the death of 
brave Antilochus, we are told J that the famous 
Helen (a Spartan), who takes, on the occasion, 
the role of a " woman doctor, ' ' 
" Mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl, 
Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use t' assuage 
The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage. 
***** * 
These drugs, so friendly to the joys of life, 
Bright Helen learn'd from Thone's imperial wife, 
Who sway'd the sceptre, where prolific Nile 
With various simples clothes the fatten'd soil."! 
It was the luck of JEsculapius to be an orphan 
from his birth, if birth he had, to speak correctly. 
When Apollo found that the conduct of Coronis 
was bad, he became very angry, as was to be ex- 
pected, and ordered Diana to destroy her through 
a stroke of lightning, which was done. But he 
thought it well to save the child ; and to do this, 
it is to be presumed, the operation now known as 
the Caesarian was hastily performed. The opera- 
tion was successful, but what to do with baby 
JEsculapius, who, it is not unlikely, was brought 
into the world prematurely, was puzzling to 
Apollo. It appears that the little unfortunate 
would likely have perished had it not been for the 
friendly offices of a goat and a dog. The goat 
gave the precious enfant trouve nourishment, while 
the faithful dog guarded him from harm. Hence 
it is, we are told, that these animals came to be 
associated with him, the former in sacrifice. The 
dog has been given the credit of nourishing him, 
and the frequent association of the goat with him 
afterwards is explained otherwise than as stated 
above, namely, because, to use the words of 
Tooke, || "A goat is always in a fever ;and, there- 
fore, a goat's constitution is very contrary to 
health." 
In progress of time, Apollo took care that jEs- 
*A writer.in Smith's "Dictionary of Grecian and Roman 
Antiquities" remarks that the personification of the heal- 
ing powers of nature is " naturally enough described as the 
son (the effects) of Helios-Apollo-or the sun." 
f Iliad and Odyssey. 
I Vide the works of Hippocrates, translated and edited by 
Adams. 
|| Op. cit. 
g Pantheon. 
* Homer and the Iliad. 
t Odyssey, b. iv. 
I Vide also note on Phieon below. 
|| Op. cit. 7 
culapius should not grow up in ignorance; so the 
boy was put under a master, and a strange one, 
too, Chiron, who was very monstrously formed, 
his figure from the waist down being the body of 
a horse. This strangely-formed individual, a 
centaur, directed the attention of his pupil to the 
study of the medicinal virtues of plants ; for he 
was a great herbalist, being called by Homer, in 
the words of Pope, " the Sire of Pharipacy." A 
symbol in the form of this Thessalian monster is 
of pharmaceutical significance. 
I am not particularly called on to speak further 
of 2Esculapius personally, but I deem it desirable 
to say a few words about his medical career and 
other points, so as to make the sketch complete. 
His knowledge of drugs became greater than that 
of his master, Chiron, and his practical skill as a 
physician touched on the supernatural. His pa- 
tients did not die, and a few he recalled from- "the 
shades below." Of his plans of cure, Pindar,* 
after speaking of the sick that flocked to him, 
says : 
" Some spells brought back to life ; 
These drank the potion bland; for these he bound 
With drugs the aching wound ; 
Some leaped to strength beneath the helpful knife." 
His great success in curing the sick, and espec- 
ially his recalling some from the other world, led 
to his destruction. Pluto, the God of the infernal 
regions, not wishing a sparse population, became 
displeased with him and complained to Jupiter, 
who, likely believing that he was becoming too 
powerful, cut short his career through a thunder- 
bolt. 
In the celebrated ode quoted from above, Pindar 
declares that the efforts of JEsculapius to recall 
the dead to life were inspired by temptation with 
gold ; he says : 
" Alas! that filthy gain can blind the wise ! 
The glittering gold betrayed the noble leech." 
Making this ugly charge is probably unjust to 
the great physician. The historian Grote, f 
thinks so, and expresses the idea that Pindar was 
disposed " to extenuate the cruelty of Zeus by 
imputing guilty and sordid views to 
In the references of Homer to 2Esculapius, he 
appears as simply a mortal, a fact which Blackie 
characterizes as remarkable ; but after his death 
an JEsculapian cultus spread rapidly. As Cox 
says, J "there were few divine personages more 
widely honored than this son of Apollo." Tem- 
ples called 2Esclepia were erected to him, to which 
patients flocked to be healed. At these resorts, 
one or more nights were passed, during which 
rules laid down by the priests were observed- 
The cure was usually suggested by a dream. Tho 
medical attendants or priests, in the 2Esclepiar 
were called JEsclepiades. Through the votive- 
tablets, some of which are yet extant, which told 
more or less of the treatment, a considerable deal 
of medical knowledge was accumulated in these- 
institutions. In the introductory remarks to his 
excellent edition of the works of Hippocrates, 
Adams says: "When we come to an analysis of 
the different Hippocratic treatises, it will be seen- 
that there is strong reason to believe we are stil? 
in possession of two documents composed from the 
result of observations made in the ancient temples 
of health." That great ajithor, the princeof physi- 
cians, as he was called, I think, by Pliny, gathered 
much of his knowledge at the JEsclepion of Cos, one 
of the most famous, as Ihave already said, afew cen- 
turies before the Christian era, and, of course, cov- 
ered forever with eclat by its illustrious alumnus. 
JEsculapius was married, as every respectable 
physician should be, and as was desirable in ai» 
exemplar, the father of six children, two sons; 
and four daughters, of whom both the former, Po- 
dalirius and Machaon, taught by their "parent 
god," were "famed surgeons," "divine profes- 
sors of the healing arts," according to Homer, 
in the Trojan war, and of the latter, one, Hygeia, 
became the goddess of health. Hippocrates proba- 
bly traced his pedigree to Podalirius. 
I have said that a goat was frequently sacrificed 
to This was most often done by the- 
Cyrenians. A more common sacrifice was the do- 
mestic cock, a very watchful bird, a fit symbol in 
medicine. Socra- 
tes has, through 
Plato,* made this 
memorable. Said 
the dying sage, as 
he felt his limbs 
grow cold: ' 'When 
the poison reaches 
the heart, that will 
be the end." Feel- 
ing his body grad- 
ually losing its 
vital heat, and re- 
alizing that relief 
from his troubles 
was at hand, he said (they were his last words): 
"Crito, I owe a cock to JEsculapius; will you 
remember to pay the debt?" "The debt shall be 
paid," responded his friend. 
Fig. 6. 
* Third Pythian Ode. 
f History of Greece. 
J Comparative Mythology and Folklore. 
* Phaedo. 8 
There is yet another symbol connected with 
figures of yEsculapius, to which reference has been 
already made, about which I must say a few words. 
I refer to the child Telesphorus, likely a sort of 
genius or daemon, such as that of Socrates. A 
cut (Fig. 6), copied from Tooke,* minus the laurel 
branches, in which he appears wrapped in a man- 
tle, is given. He is barefooted. Figures of him 
vary considerably in appearance. He is generally 
regarded as symbolic of the sustaining vital force, 
the vis medicatrix natures, upon which greatly de- 
pends the recovery of the sick. 
Health is symbolized in Hygeia, the pretty 
" Daughter of Paeon,f queen of every joy," 
to use the appropriate words with which Arm- 
strong starts off in the invocation to her, at the 
beginning of his fine poem. J At least one figure 
of the goddess is doubtless familiar to my readers, 
that in which she is represented as a blooming 
maid with a serpent twined around one of her 
arms, and feeding out of a patina, or chalice. Re- 
ferring to this ideal, Dr. Aitken Meigs, who died 
too young, in a remarkable farewell address to 
students, delivered in 1879, pronounces "the 
high-born maid " to be 
" Of beauty's types the highest, best idea," 
and continues : 
"Nor fragile she. nor pale, but ruddy, strong, 
And gladsome as a tuneful, joyous song; 
Her comely form, in swelling curves designed, 
Is perfect grace, with glowing strength combined; 
Crimson and white in her fair face contend, 
Upon her cheeks in sweet confusion blend; 
Her rosy lips excel the coral's brightness, 
Brow, nose and chin are fleecy ways of whiteness; 
Loose flowing falls her hair, a golden spray. 
Forth from her lustrous eyes, she scatters day. 
$ * # H: * * 
In one small hand a cup she deftly holds, 
Whilst round her soft, white arm in many folds 
A serpent twines, and from the chalice drinks. 
Low crouches, sometimes, at her feet, a sphinx. 
From these strange emblems learn her character; 
How very cunning she, and how exact her 
Knowledge and profound; how with wondrous skill 
Her youth renews; and is discreet and still." 
Dr. Meigs not inaptly says that this is to the 
physician what the chosen maid was to the knight 
of old, the patron saint. He believes that "in 
all probability Hygeia is derived from Maut or 
Mut, 'the mother goddess' of Egypt," as well as 
that "JEsculapius is doubtless the Egyptian 
Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus, whose symbols, 
the staff and twining serpent, surmounted with 
the mystic hawk of Horus Ra and the solar uraeus, 
appear in the ancient temple Pselcis, near Dak- 
keh, in Nubia."* The explanation of the sym- 
bols connected with the figure of the goddess 
given is all very well, except, perhaps, in regard 
to the import of the serpent. Taking the reptile 
to be symbolic of the art of healing, why it should 
be connected with the goddess of health is not 
very obvious. In this connection its presence 
may possibly imply that it is only through medi- 
cal knowledge that health can be preserved. The 
chalice is not always present, and as indicated in 
the verses, neither is the sphinx. I will give a 
cut of the goddess copied 
from DeWilde's book, in 
the attractive form in 
which she appeared on 
an antique gem (Fig. 7). 
One might raise the ob- 
jection that the serpent 
is too long to be of the 
species. 
I have said that the 
cut of the goddess given 
is from a gem; and a 
very appropriate thing 
it would be on, say, the 
seal-ring of a physician. 
And this reminds me that a ring was from the 
earliest times, and until recently, regarded as a 
necessary item of the insignia of the medical 
man, one of the indispensable things to have in 
order to be suitably prepared to justly exercise the 
healing art. It is spoken of, I believe, in one of 
the spurious Hippocratic works. Different stones 
Fig. 7. 
* Op. cit. 
f Paeon, or Pa>eon, was the name frequently given, after 
the time of Homer, to Aesculapius, as well as his father 
(Apollo). It is the one always used by Homer in speaking 
of the physician of the Olympian gods. Thus in reference 
to the source of the medical knowledge of the Pharian or 
EgyptiaiFraee, it is said (Odyssey, b. iv.): 
"From Phieon sprung, their patron-god imparts 
To all the Fl avian race, his healing arts." 
" Peeonian herbs" is the phrase made use of by Virgil 
(JEneid, b. vii.) in his account of the restoration to life of 
Hippolytus, and elsewhere. 
| The Art of Preserving Life. 
♦Hygeia may have sprung into existence as a personifica- 
tion of the great serpent-accompanied virgin, river-mist or 
cloud goddess, Pallas Athene (Minerva) in her capacity of 
Healer. The Egyptian goddess corresponding with Mi- 
nerva was Neit or Neith, the great mother who gave birth 
to the sun-god, Ra, and the tutelar goddess of Sais. As to 
the Egyptian god corresponding with JEsculapius, Dr. Eras- 
mus Wilson, in his " Egypt of the Past," says: ''Imhotep, 
the Imuthes of the Greeks, corresponded with their TEscu- 
lapius." Imhotep was a king of the sixth dynasty. He 
was the son of Ptah and Sekhet. Ptah, the father of tho 
gods and the great artificer of the world, has been taken to 
correspond with Vulcan (Hephaestus), who had the gift of 
healing. 9 
in it differently engraved gave it different uses 
and powers. Another item of the insignia re- 
ferred to was the gold-headed cane. As seen in 
the last century, it was smooth and varnished. 
The gold head may have had some significance ; 
it was at least suggestive of the physician's re- 
puted love of the precious metal. It will be 
remembered that in the famous description* of 
his doctor, Chaucer says, and with charming 
casuistry: 
" For gould in physike is a cordial; 
Therefore he lovede gould in special." 
Carrying a gem, whether in a ring or otherwise, 
with a symbol of health engraved on it, was, of 
course, a superstitious practice-a practice not at 
all objectionable, if it inspires hope and fortitude. 
Many a wise man, however, has carried a symbol 
of health, to serve to preserve his own, just as 
many a one has worn a red string around his neck 
to keep off small-pox, or gone about his business 
with a chestnut in his pocket to prevent an at- 
tack of rheumatism. This plan of holding diseases 
at bay inspired the making of many symbols of 
medical significance; that is, medical amulets. 
The abraxas stones, of which much has been said, 
were largely such. On each there was generally 
some figure or inscription together with the word 
abraxas, f which constituted the characteristic 
feature. J The Greek letters of this mystic word 
equaled in numerical value, || 365, the number of 
days in a year. A cut of one of these stones is 
given by Sharpe.§ After speaking of the serpent 
of evil on it, he continues: "Underneath it is 
written the magical word abraxas, hurt me not, an 
Egyptian word which the Greeks made use of as 
believing that the evil spirits were better ac- 
quainted with the Egyptian language than with 
the Greek." Not a few believe that the word is 
not such at all. At any rate, the abraxas stones 
are believed to have originated with the Basilidean 
Gnostics. Large numbers of them have been 
found in Egypt, Spain and elsewhere. I may add 
here, that in De Wilde's book a talismanic gem is 
pictured, on one side of which are the Greek 
letters IAf2, signifying God; and on the other a 
representation of an extremely erotic and rather 
misshapen lion rampant, which worn in a ring 
was said to prevent renal and other diseases. De 
Wilde observes, and in accordance with a belief 
of ancient date, which I cannot dwell on,* that 
in this one was health symbolized; says he: 
"Leo erectus verum signum sanitatis protendit." 
I might go on and speak of that peculiar sym- 
bol placed at the head of prescriptions, and taken 
by the practical physician to mean Recipe, but 
which is a symbol of Jupiter, whose good influ- 
ence was, in other days, generally invoked when 
remedies were prescribed-and the physician's 
color, yellow, with others, such as the red-striped 
pole, now regarded as the symbol of the mere bar- 
ber, and the skull and cross-bones-but enough 
has been said to give some idea of the scope of 
medical symbolism. In extent it is evidently not 
very limited, nor is it without variety and the 
means of variety enough. Yet, how little use does 
one see made of it! How seldom do publishers 
take any advantage whatever of it on the covers 
of their books or anywhere else! And what little 
is here and there attempted is apt to be a trifle 
preposterous, on a par almost with the misuse of 
*0n second thought, I deem it wise to add a note on this 
curious and important matter. The lingo, of the Hindus, 
the phallus of the Greeks, and the penis of the Romans, in 
the form of an " upright " sacred tree, or tree of life, named 
by the Jews asherah (vide Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarch- 
ies," Vol. II.), and mistranslated, perhaps purposely, in the 
Bible, grove, as in the phrase, " where the women wove 
hangings for the grove " (2 Judges xxiii. 7), appeared on the 
circular altar of Baal-peor of the Moabites and Midianites, 
and some of the Israelites (vide Numbers xxv. and 2 
Judges xxii.)-the Triapus of the Greeks and Romans. 
This object has been taken by many peoples as symbolic of 
the widely worshiped, active, renewing, generative power in 
nature, the sun, called Horus by the Egyptians, Asshur by 
the Assyrians, Baal by the Phcenicians, Apollo by the 
Greeks, etc., just as an oval or round figure, the yoni of the 
Hindus and the dels of the Greeks, has been of the passive 
power, the earth. " As such," says Cox, in his philosophic 
work, already quoted from, "the symbol became a protect- 
ing power, like the Palladium which guarded the city of 
Troy, the rod or staff of wealth placed in the hands of 
Hermes, the budding thyrsus of the worshipers of Dionysus, 
and the sistrum of the Egyptian priests. The rod thus 
grew into a tree of life, and in conjunction with the oval 
emblem became the stauros or cross of Osiris, the Egyptian 
symbol of immortality, the god himself being crucified to 
the tree, which denoted his fructifying power." "When 
we add," says the same author, "that from its physical char- 
acteristics the asherah suggested the emblem of the serpent, 
we have the key to the tree and serpent worship." The tree 
worshipped was an upright statue or post, occasionally with 
sprouts. The phallus-serpent was never regarded with 
dread, or looked on as other than a beneficent and life- 
giving power. 
In accordance with these ideas, both the serpent and staff 
of zEsculapius may have been of phallic origin. 
* Canterbury Tales. 
fThis should not be confounded with the word abraca- 
dabra, which, however, was long reputed to be of great 
efficacy when brought to bear against agues and other 
fevers. 
I The cut of one at the end of this article is copied from 
an engraving of one in De Wilde's book. On the reverse 
side was shown a lion with a prey in his mouth, and a star 
between his legs. 
|| The first, letter 1; the second, 2; the third, 100; the 
fourth, 1; the fifth, 200 ; the sixth, 1; and the seventh, 60, 
I Op. cit. 10 
the serpent by the quack-medicine man who con- 
founds the religious (Christian) significance of it 
with the medical. Here is a medical publisher 
who makes use of the caduceus of Mercury, there 
one the club of Hercules with a rather venomous- 
looking snake crawling down it from-heaven 
only knows where-and so on. And there I see a 
journal devoted to anatomy and surgery with a seal 
on its back, in which appear heads of Vesalius and 
Pare, an emblem of anatomy and surgery, about as 
expressive and appropriate as one consisting of 
heads of Washington and Bismarck would be of 
war and conquest. But perhaps a little, even if 
bad, is better than nothing. Anything modern 
that is worthy of attention is rare. I may take 
note of a fair specimen. 
On the title-page of a journal edited by the late 
Dr. Dunglison, a learned and sensible man, The 
American Medical Intelligencer, which had a brief 
existence in the latter half of the fourth decade 
of this century, appears the symbol, the cut of 
which is given (Fig. 8). The idea is obvious and 
is good, but is poorly executed. 
Ideas for symbolic designs 
of medical significance are 
plentiful enough. The instru- 
ments and drugs used by the 
disciples of JEsculapius afford 
a host, if one does not wish to 
take advantage of mythologi- 
cal or allied hints. If it be 
•desired to give an Egyptian 
design on the cover of a 
book, say on obstetrics, the main part of an ad- 
mirable one may be found ready at hand on the 
wall of the great temple at Luxor.* It is the 
scene, and a sufficiently chaste one, of the maiden 
mother giving birth to the future king, Amunot- 
toph III., for whom the temple or palace was 
erected about 1400 B. C. She is seated on the 
midwife's stool, as described in Exodus i. 16, 
while two nurses have her by the hands, doing 
what they can to ease the pains of labor. But 
for a design of obstetrical import there could 
probably be few better than one in which promi- 
nence were given to the good housewifery sym- 
bols, the pestle, hatchet, and broom : those re- 
spectively of Pilumnus, a god of children; nter- 
cidona, the goddess who first taught the art of 
cutting fire-wood ; and Deverra, the goddess who 
invented the broom, that great instrument of 
cleanliness, and enemy of that Python, or I may 
say Hydra, of many modern doctors, the disease- 
germ ; the deities that save the pregnant woman 
from harm from her special enemies, the unclean 
sylvan gods. The broom ! wise old Romans ! wiser 
than the moderns with bottles of carbolic acid in 
their hands. And with these symbols, especially if 
the design were wanted for a work on obstetrics by 
a female author, there might be given a figure of 
the goddess Juno Lucina, the special friend of 
women in labor. Or if the author had no respect 
for the classic divinities, and had faith enough in 
magical healers, a figure of-I need not mention 
whom, for I fear it would be hard to find a mod- 
ern doctor who has regard enough for these tradi- 
tional heroes to desire to place the image of one, 
even if an old specialist of great renown, on the 
back of his book. 
By way of conclusion and at the risk of running 
too deep into occult knowledge, I will give some 
account of a remarkable magic figure, of interest 
to the physician, about which little is generally 
known, but which is often referred to in certain 
out-of-the-way lines of study. I refer to the pen- 
tacle, triple triangle, or pentalpha of Pythagoras, 
the formulator of a celebrated system of phil- 
osophy, the basis of which is numerical.* A 
representation of it in its simple 
form is given herewith (Fig. 9) ; 
and it will be observed on inspec- 
tion that it has five arms or points, 
five double triangles, with five 
acute angles within, and five ob- 
tuse ones without; so that if there is the virtue in 
the number five which the occult philosophers 
have asserted there is, it must have much. It is 
in fact the famous legendary key of Solomon, 
which has played a notable role in history. Tenny- 
son, f one of the few well-known authors by whom 
reference to it is made, speaks of it when he 
makes one of his characters (Katie) draw (it cau 
be done through one stroke), 
" With her slender pointed foot 
Some figure, like a wizard's pentagram, 
On garden gravel." 
I have said that little is generally known hbout 
the pentacle. Here is some evidence. Ruskin J 
defines it to be "a five-pointed star or a double 
triangle ornament, the symbol of the trinity," a 
wrong definition, but not quite so bad as that 
given in Mollett's handsome new work,|| namely, 
"a figure formed of two triangles intersected so as 
to form a six-pointed star." The opinion is ex- 
Fig. 9- 
Fig. 8. 
* Vide The Pythagorean Triangle, by George Oliver. 
fThe Brook. 
| Art Culture. 
|| Dictionary of words used in art and archteology. 
*Vide Sharpe's "Egyptian Mythology." 11 
pressed by Bayard Taylor,* that the magical 
powers attributed to it could be explained by the 
fact that being made up of three triangles, it was 
a "triple symbol of the trinity." This might be 
true, but it was regarded as possessing mysterious 
powers long before Christianity originated. 
A common mistake, the one evidently made by 
Mollett, of even learned writers, as for example, 
Oliver f and Fairholt, t'is to confound the pentacle 
with the seal of Solomon or David, which consists 
of two deltas or equilateral triangles, so arranged 
as to form a six-pointed star. 
By the German writers on magic and kindred 
subjects, the pentacle is often called Drudenfuss 
(wizard's foot), a term which Mackey || takes to 
be a corruption of the term for Druid's foot, by 
which people it was in use, being often worn on 
their sandals. As Bayard Taylor, however, says : 
" Drud, from the same root as Druid, was the old 
German word for wizard." 
This symbol has been extensively as well as 
long used. It has been observed on a figure of 
Anubis in Egypt. It is stated § that it was used 
on coins of Antiochus Epiphanes, and also of Ly- 
simachus. The statement I have seen made 
somewhere, that it is one of the old sect-marks of 
the Hindus, is an error, I believe. By referring 
to Coleman's** or Birdwood's ff work, it will be 
seen that it is Solomon's seal that has been so 
used. 
The pentacle has been accorded great potency 
and extensively used, to keep off witches and all 
sorts of evil influences, including the devil him- 
self, and hence has served purposes very similar 
to those to which the horse-shoe has often been 
put. Aubrey ft says that it was formerly used by 
the Greek Christians as the sign of the cross is 
now, "at thebeginning of letters or books, for 
good luck's sake "-something which old John 
Evelyn was wont to do in his books, and as 
Southey placed the puzzling monogram, |||| meant, 
perhaps, to have similar significance, on the title- 
page of his work, "The Doctor." It maybe seen 
on many a cradle and threshold at the present 
day in the Fatherland. The readers of Goethe's 
great work * will remember that Dr. Faust had 
one on his threshold, and that when he began to 
perceive that there was something suspicious about 
the character of the "poodle," he remarked that, 
" Fiir solche halbe Hollenbrut 
1st Salomonis Schlussel gut." 
How he got in, Mephistopheles himself afterwards 
explained by showing that one of the angles of 
the " Drudenfuss" was left open. 
Disciples of the Samian sage, Cabalistic Jews 
and Arabians, and others, long regarded the pen- 
tacle as a symbol of health, and made use of it as 
a talisman, calling it Hygeia, the name of the 
goddess of health. It was so-called, and to some 
extent likely for a similar reason, regarded as a 
sacred symbol of health, because it could be re- 
solved, it was believed, into the Greek letters 
which form the word Hygeia, and these letters f 
were placed one on each arm of the figure, as is 
done in the one J at the head of this article. It 
was regarded, in fact, as a sort of rebus of the 
name of the celebrated daughter of yEsculapius. 
The scholarly and. ingenious readers of the Re- 
porter may be able to trace more or less definitely 
this traditional similarity. It is an interesting 
point about what is certainly a very remarkable 
figure. 
*In his notes to " Faust." 
t Op. cit. 
J Op. cit. * 
| Encyclopcedia of Freemasonry. 
gin Broughton's "Italy," Vol. II. 
V Notes and Queries, 3 Series, Vol. IX. 
** Mythology of the Hindus. 
ft Indian arts. 
H Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme. 
KU Three equal triangles formed by a line from each angle 
of an equilateral one to a point in the centre. 
* Faust. 
fSometimes the synonymous Roman name, Salus, was so 
used. In Mrs. Palliser's work, already referred to, it is thus 
seen. It is there spoken of as a device used by Marguerite 
of France, wife of Henry IV., and the last of the Valois. 
I This, as shown, forms one side of a "charm" of the 
writer's. It is of Masonic as well as medical and Christian 
import, at least in its outline, and has an appropriate em- 
blem of the kind on the other side.