The sign is generally explained thus: The pole represents a stick, usually held in his hand by the patient while getting bled, and the red and white spiral stripes, blood and a bandage, respectively. The colors, it may be observed, are not always arranged in spiral parallel stripes; nor are the colors limited to red and white. The use of blue with, or even without, red is partly allowable, on account of venous blood being somewhat bluish in hue. Mr. Jeaffreson, indeed, says that “the chirurgical pole, properly tricked out, ought to have a line of blue paint, another of red, and a third of white,”[517] spirally arranged.
On the top of the pole there is usually placed, in Great Britain, France, and other European countries, a brass basin, with a semicircular gap in one side. This vessel is used by the barber to keep the clothes of his patrons from being soiled. With a gallipot, instead of the basin, one has the real pole of the surgeon, which has been extensively used as a sign. Without either, it is in use by the barbers in this country. Lord Thurlow, a member of the House of Commons, delivered a speech on the 17th of July, 1797, in opposition to the Surgeons’ Incorporation Bill, in which he said: “By a statute, still in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole. The barbers were to have theirs blue and white striped, with no appendage; but the surgeons’, which was the same in other respects, was likewise to have a gallipot and a red flag, to denote the particular nature of their vocation.”
The Color Yellow.—It is a well-known fact that yellow is a characteristically medical color. A flag of this color is in use at lazarettos, and it is often placed at plague-stricken spots, as a warning to the observer to keep away. How is the medical import of the color to be accounted for? In Christian symbolism it signifies faith, but one must turn, I believe, to astrology to learn the reason of its medical significance. To the astrologer, yellow was the color of the sun; and it was to this planet, anciently so regarded, that the possession of greatest influence over disease was accorded.
The Physician’s Conveyance.—It is said that Asclepiades, the ancient quack, perambulated the world on a cow’s back, living on her milk as he went along. We have no reason to believe that such a mode of moving from point to point ever became a professional custom; but physicians in recent times have always had, in most places, characteristic methods of travel, in their rounds among their patients.
It appears that, previous to the reign of Charles II, it was customary for the English doctors to visit on horseback, “sitting,” as Jeaffreson says, “sideways on foot-cloths, like women.”[518] At any rate, Aubrey says that Harvey “rode on horseback with a foot-cloth, his men following on foot, as the fashion then was, which was very decent, now quite discontinued.”[519] Later, carriages of various kinds, some very showy, came into vogue.
For many years the physicians of Philadelphia, as of other prominent American cities, have been known, as they have gone about their duties, by their use of a special form of phaeton. It is a four-wheeled conveyance, with a fixed top, and is drawn by one horse. Riding in it is pleasant, and its generous top protects well in bad weather. Several years ago a two-wheeled modification of it was introduced, but it did not become popular, and of late has been disappearing. By a few of the more well-to-do in the profession, two-horse carriages of various styles are used; but there is nothing characteristic about them.
The Physician’s Gold-Headed Cane.—Much might be written about the gold-headed cane of the physician. Although it has had its day, it was long considered an important part of a medical outfit. Jeaffreson ventures to affirm that formerly “no doctor would have presumed to pay a professional visit, or even to be seen in public, without this mystic wand.”[520] What was its history? Did it come down to our time as a representative of the one placed in the hand of the god of medicine by the artists? Jeaffreson expresses the opinion that it is “a relic of the conjuring paraphernalia with which the healer in ignorant and superstitious times always worked upon the imagination of the credulous,” and that “it descended to him from Hermes and Mercurius.” “It was a relic,” he adds, “of old jugglery, and of yet older religion.”[521] As the reader is aware, these statements are open to criticism. But, whatever its origin may have been, it was almost universally used by physicians until recently.
The physician’s cane was generally smooth, of moderate weight, and with a gold head in the form of a knob. A gold head! What was the meaning of that? Was it used because of the bearer’s reputed love of the precious metal? Chaucer says, and with charming casuistry, in the famous description of his doctor:—
“For gould in physike is a cordial;
Therefore, he lovede gould in special.”[522]