Caduceus eloquence). The caduceus is often incorrectly used as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice, particularly in North America, due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and is never depicted with wings. It is thought that this symbol's long lasting association with the medical profession stems from early use of twigs to draw out long bodied inter muscular parasitic worms by wrapping them slowly around the twig so as not to break them or allow them to escape back into the body, a successful treatment still in use today,
Caduceus as a symbol of medicine documented mistakes, misunderstandings and confusion. Before the ancient Romans and Greeks (about 2612 BCE), older representations from Syria and India of sticks and animals looking like serpents or worms are interpreted as a direct representation of traditional treatment of "dracunculiasis", the Guinea worm disease. While there is ample historical evidence of the use of the caduceus, or herald's staff, to represent Hermes or Mercury (and by extension commerce and negotiation), early evidence of any symbolic association between the caduceus and medicine or medical practice is scarce and ambiguous. It is likely linked to the alchemical "universal solvent", Azoth, the symbol