The Gold Headed Cane

The gold headed cane has long been a symbol in medicine. The original cane was carried by John Radcliffe (1652-1714) and passed down from physician to physician through the hands of Richard Mead, Anthony Askew, William Pitcairn, and Matthew Baillie. Each physician, at the end of his career, would identify a colleague of worth and bequeath the cane to him. Back then, the cane was the symbol of the physician much as the white coat is today. With a head of gold, silver, or ivory, the canes were hollow and perforated. Doctors would fill the inside with powders thought to prevent disease. On rounds, as they entered patient rooms, physicians would bang the canes on the ground to aerosolize the compounds. The favorite preparation was "vinegar of the four thieves" or Marseilles vinegar; the story is that four thieves who robbed a plague-stricken Marseilles confessed that they took this aromatic vinegar to prevent catching the contagion. What an odd tradition.

Image of the gold headed cane in the Royal College of Physicians, London shown under Fair Use, from www.rcplondon.ac.uk.