# The snake on the pole medical symbol?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 13, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025 "2007-04-13T23:12:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/1 "2007-04-13T23:12:04Z")

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What’s the name of it again?

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/2 "2007-04-13T23:13:50Z")

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caduceus

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/3 "2007-04-13T23:27:16Z")

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Unless you mean the [Staff of Asclepius](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_asclepius)

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**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/4 "2007-04-13T23:34:35Z")

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Just to give the [caduceus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus) equal time . . .

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/5 "2007-04-13T23:34:36Z")

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Thanks. The reason I asked is that I just got my medic alert bracelet, and it had the symbol, and I couldn’t remember the name.

It looks like a combination of the two-there’s only one snake, for example.

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**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/6 "2007-04-13T23:34:59Z")

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Personally, I call it Bob.

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-snake-on-the-pole-medical-symbol/400025/7 "2007-04-13T23:41:51Z")

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The [Caduceus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus), noted above, was the symbol of Hermes, god of commerce (and a bunch of other stuff) with no association with healing. However, later the symbol was associated with alchemy which had a vague association with medicine. Around the beginning of the 20th century, the U.S. Army Medical Corp adopted the Caduceus, symbol of medicine and alchemy instead of the symbol of healing, for its emblem. Whether this was an act of ignorance or irony I do not know. So the single snake Staff of Asclepius is now confused with the twin snake Caduceus (at least in the U.S.) since both symbols are used for diferrent medical associations.