CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
183 
be based on experience. It may be the experience of others 
combined with kindred experiences of our own, but never¬ 
theless experience must provide the very foundation of it all. 
So our conclusion is that these ancient people formed the 
caduceus after the pattern they had seen the serpents assume 
in their native state, living their lives according to the instincts 
implanted in them by the Creative Power. 
The official use of the caduceus symbol for medical services 
in the United States dates from a very early period. In the 
archives of the Surgeon General’s office there is a heraldic 
shield bearing the symbol of Aesculapius, apparently of the 
1918 period, the Medical Corps having been organized at 
that date. 
This shows a shield with the national colors on the right, the 
single snake and staff on the left, and a cock for the crest. 
This may not be as true heraldically as it could be made, but at 
the same time the United States was not greatly concerned 
with heraldry. This symbol of Aesculapius is similar to that 
in use by the British Medical Corps and those of other Euro¬ 
pean countries. 
Today the Medical Department of the United States Army 
uses the caduceus as a symbol, having adopted it as the emblem 
of the noncombatant forces of their personnel in the field. It 
was borrowed from the Public Health Department, which 
seems to have used it for some time, and was formerly used 
on the uniform of the hospital steward in 1856, when it ap¬ 
peared on the chevron. It was never a part of the medical 
uniform until 1902, at which time there was a general revision 
of the Medical Corps and uniforms, following changes in 
Army Regulations, issue of 1901. 
