Caduceus charms are a popular gift for graduating veterinary students, nurses and physicians but are you aware of how this emblem became so popular with medical workers? The Rod of Asclepius is a more fitting emblem for medicine and medical organisations, so why is the caduceus used although, unlike the Rod of Asclepius, it has no medical meaning? In actual fact, quite the contrary as the symbol is linked with Hermes, god of the market place and travel and of the craftiness of liars, and who is normally linked to waywardness and deception. He was also the escort of the dead to the underworld, so the use of his sign for medicine is especially unsuitable.