You know, of course, the emblem of medicine - a stick wrapped with a snake. According to legend, this is the bastion of Asclepius. It was as if the ancient Greek physician Asclepius went to the palace of the king of Crete, and suddenly a serpent wrapped his ass. Asclepius killed her, but there came another snake with a bunch of grass in the clove and raised the first. With this herb, Asclepius healed the king's son.

This legend has always seemed to me rather stupid and as if degrading the high mission of medicine. What kind of courage is it to take away a bunch of floating grass? No need for mind or skill. So I was delighted when I heard the other version.

There is, it turns out, this kind of parasitic worms - rishta, or draconian. A typical worm, but lives in a person not in the intestine, but in the subcutaneous tissue. It grows under the skin to 80 centimeters, causing hellish pain and purulent wounds. The sufferers affected by rhizome could be found everywhere, from ancient Greece to Central Asia some 80 years ago. The only way to get rid of the worm was to pull it out entirely from the wound, swallowing it on a stick, very slowly and carefully, so that God does not break, and then the contamination of the blood is guaranteed. The procedure sometimes lasted for several days and required a lot of experience and patience.

So, some historians believe that the medical emblem actually depicts not the snake that wrapped the Asclepius's basin, but this same worm wrapped in a rod. Imagine that ancient doctor who sits all day in the sunshine on a dirty basar and under the cry of the patient slowly and slowly, a millimeter from the purulent wound of the endless worm, knowing that one uncertain movement - and everything is gone. In my opinion, this is the most correct, honest and impartial symbol of medicine that can be imagined.