THAT curling gold serpent on the background of TIME'S cover this week is the symbol of the American Medical Association and of Aesculapius, the god of medicine. It is not to be confused with the more familiar two coiled snakes that the U.S. Army Medical Corps uses, and which the A.M.A. considers a mistake. Two snakes coiled around a winged staff form the caduceus of the god Mercury, who, aside from being the messenger of the gods, is also god of commerce, the deity of thieves and conductor of the dead to the underworld. The A.M.A. prefers its own fellow, Aesculapius,...
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