First, western medicine takes "snake stick" as its symbol. The so-called "snake stick" is a walking stick with a snake-shaped pattern around it. Here is an anecdote, which originated from an ancient Greek legend: Askero Pia, one of the founders of ancient Greek medicine, is said to be the son of Apollo, the sun god, and Coroni, a mortal. He once studied medicine with Khyron's superb medical skills, and his medical skills were very good. One day, while he was thinking about a case, a poisonous snake crawled over and wrapped around his hand. Askero Pia was surprised and killed the poisonous snake at once. Unexpectedly, another poisonous snake appeared, with herbs in its mouth, lying next to the dead snake. The dead snake came back to life. Seeing this scene, Askero Pia immediately realized that snakes are poisonous and can kill people, but they have mysterious healing power and can save people. No wonder people always think that snakes are the embodiment of wisdom. From then on, every time Askero Pia went to practice medicine, he not only had to carry a war snake with him, but also always wrapped a coiled snake around his cane. Once this theory spread, people engaged in the medical industry followed suit, so the "snake stick" became the symbol of the western medical industry. In the old society, the collar of the Kuomintang military medical officer was the badge of "snake stick".
As a symbol of medicine, snake sticks have two kinds of medical symbols in the world: one is a double snake stick with wings as the theme; The other is about a snake wrapped around a stick. The double snake-winged staff originated from Hermes/macri's wand in Greek mythology. The staff of a single snake is the main symbol of Ashibis, the medical god in Roman mythology. Traditionally, people think that a snake's walking stick is an orthodox medical symbol. Whether it is a single snake stick or a double snake stick, both of them imply the meaning of "sex", indicating that the root of healing and healing comes from the magical power of creating life, and Kundalini in Sanskrit and the "spiritual quantity" in Chinese translation can correspond to it. In short, the snake stick symbolizes magical medical skills and neutral medical ethics.
Second, the symbolic story of "Star of Life"
120 The sign on the ambulance is called "Star of Life".
The Star of Life is a blue star, with six prominent faces and a staff of Aschero Pioz in the middle (another way of saying it is a column cast by Moses). Its initial design and decision-making came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the US Department of Transportation (DOT). World life star refers to emergency care units or personnel. Similar orange stars are used by rescuers.
Third, the origin
The first source is the snake and scepter in ancient Greek mythology, to commemorate the great imperial doctor Askro Pioz.
There are two different stories about the origin of snakes and the power struggle between symbols. The first one comes from ancient Greek mythology. The snake and scepter are in memory of the great imperial doctor Asclepius. Asclepius is the son of Apollo, the sun god, and Asclepius learned medical technology from Apollo Centauri. But Zeus, the king of gods, worried that some people in Asclepius's profound medical knowledge would live forever. To avoid this, Zeus killed Asclepius with lightning. Later, people worshipped Asclepius as one of the gods and gathered in his temple to rest and sleep. People believe that the secret of treatment can be passed on to patients while they are sleeping, so that they can recover immediately. In view of people's belief in Asclepius, Zeus finally had to resurrect Asclepius and formally make him a god.
Because Asclepius usually appeared in front of people in a standing position, wearing a robe and holding a scepter, which was wrapped with a snake, and then the scepter became the only symbol of medicine. The snake on the scepter is a symbol of medicine and health, while the scepter and a pair of wings are a symbol of peace. It is said that Asclepius once met a very complicated patient, which made Asclepius incurable, so he consulted a snake and asked for advice. Finally, the patient recovered. In the process of consultation and discussion with the snake, Asclepius asked the snake to wrap his staff so as to have a face-to-face discussion with the snake, which showed that they were equal. The origin of wings is that Mercury saw two snakes fighting. When all kinds of methods failed to stop them, he put the scepter on the ground and tried to separate them, but the aggressive snake wound up along the scepter.
The second reason is that according to the Bible, Moses cast the shape of a snake in bronze and put it on a post. If someone is bitten by a poisonous snake, just look at the bronze snake under the pillar and he will recover immediately.
The above two stories are the background of the design of the life star logo.
Fourth, history.
The original patent of Life Star (1967) was owned by American Medical Organization (AMA), and was later "transferred" to NHTSA, which became the symbol of its subordinate emergency service organization (EMS). Dawson Mills of DOT once asked the American Red Cross to provide the EMS ambulance with the Red Cross logo, but it was rejected. Later, Mills asked "Dirk" Farrington of AMA if he could provide "Star of Life", and he was approved. And this six-sided star is composed of Leo R., named after Leo R. Schwartz. The Star of Life was registered as a safeguard symbol on February 1977.
In September 2006, the Hong Kong Fire Services Department added a star of life to the ambulance body. In Taiwan Province Province, the ambulance technicians of the fire brigade will wear clothes with the Star of Life printed on the bottom and EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), and the same pattern will be found on ambulances.