\ Visualizing Evolution: symbols
Showing posts with label symbols. Show all posts
Showing posts with label symbols. Show all posts

Thursday, June 5, 2008

A little rant about the caduceus

This may be a bit off-topic, but I must share this little pet-peeve of mine, which is categorized in my brain somewhere between the phrase "a whole nother" and people who type "RU" instead of "are you" in instant messages.

This is a caduceus:
a.k.a. the Wand of Hermes. It's a staff spiralled by two snakes and there's a couple of wings at the top. This is the symbol of commerce, not medicine. What are news reports saying about medicine when they put a caduceus on the screen when talking about doctors or health insurance?

This is the Rod of Aslepius, the symbol of medicine. One rod, one snake, no wings.
As seen on ambulances and other EMT supplies in the Star of Life:
And now that you know that, you'll be seeing caduceuses being used wrong everywhere you look. You're welcome.