The Juggle Zone: Bargain Blog

When a Popular Science article (Worst Science Jobs II, 11/2004) claimed that the treatment (grabbing one end through a cut in the skin and wrapping it round a stick; by winding the stick over a period of days, the worm is gradually drawn out) for Dracunculosis, (caused by the Guinea worm, Dracunculus medinensis) "is so old that it inspired the ancient snake-and-pole aesculapius symbol of medicine," I questioned it. Nevermind the fact that the parasite is a skinny worm, not a snake. I had learned that the symbol was taken from the bible, in Numbers 21:8-9:

And the Lord said to Moses, "Make yourself a fiery serpent and place it on a pole, and it will be that anyone who was bitten will look at it and live." Moses made a serpent of copper and placed it on the pole; so it was that if the serpent bit a man, he would stare at the copper serpent and live.

Number 2 in a list of worst science jobs is Worm Parasitologist:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,20967,713466,00.html

"When the thousands of babies make their joyous arrival, they blister the skin and pop through, leaving Mom behind. The traditional way to get rid of her is to wrap her head around a stick and twist very slowly—one turn of the stick per day—for weeks or months, depending on how long she is. (This treatment is so old that it inspired the ancient snake-and-pole aesculapius symbol of medicine.)"

Is this aetiology correct? If so, what is the source?

It seems that the bronze snake Moses raised on a pole and was reputed to have healing powers (Num. 21: 4-9) must be related to this ancient symbol or image, too.

Has any scholarly study been made of this emblem - or whatever it is - that could be cited?

Several correspondents noted the resemblance of the Asklepian to the biblical "serpent of brass," which Moses used to miraculously cure snake bites (5). Indeed, plague medals that depicted Moses holding the brass serpent became popular religious icons during the 14th century. They were worn in the hope of evoking the protection of Jesus and God against the bubonic plague, just as the Greeks and Romans of antiquity had used charms to evoke the protection of Asklepios (6). The brass serpent of Moses was a very popular Renaissance motif and was prominently depicted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Schouten wrote, "In my opinion, this emblem, the brass serpent, greatly influenced the 16th century renaissance of the classical Aesculapius and his attribute, the rod and serpent, when Humanism infused new life into a number of antique motifs" (6). This symbol is known as the Tau cross and is featured on the coat of arms of the Royal Society of Medicine of the United Kingdom, where it is often mistaken for an Asklepian.
5. Numbers 21:9.
6. Schouten J. The Rod and the Serpent of Asklepios. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1967.
(The Symbol of Modern Medicine 140:4 311-312)

On the religious front, I also found numerous claims of a relationship between the snake on the staff and Jesus on the cross. In contrast, Jewish tradition states, "Does a serpent cause death or life? Rather when they looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Fatherin Heaven they were healed, but if not, they died" (Rashi on Talmud Rosh Hashanah 29a). The next useful source that I identified was an article by Frank Heynick in The Jewish Western Bulletin (published in British Columbia, Canada). In The serpents of Exodus, Heynick states, "The traditional symbol of the medical profession, the serpent on a pole, is commonly known as the staff of Asklepios. This was the name of a semi-divine Greek physician of the ninth- or eighth-century BCE. Yet the roots of the serpent and pole symbol go back farther - to the Exodus from Egypt around 1200 BCE." Interestingly, based on his assignment of dates, the bronze snake was destroyed by King Hezekiah when the people began to worship it coincided with the adoption of the symbol by the Greeks.

Coming full circle, Heynick reasons that one possible explanation for the use of such a symbol (when normally the Jewish people were prohibited from making idols) was to serve as a visual aid for the treatment of Dracunculosis.

Ironically, the manner in which humans become infected is through the ingestion of (unfiltered) water containing infected copepods (Dracunculus medinensis larvae are consumed by copepods). Graphic descriptions of the process are available here and here. As was widely reported, Jews in New York City recently began to filter the drinking water due to the discovery of copepods. Had Moses (and the biblical Jews) filtered their drinking water, the iconic snake-and-pole may have never been needed.