The American National Red Cross, through its executive committee, passed resolutions October 18, 1907, which decided that by reason of an international agreement the emblem of the red cross was adopted to designate the personnel of sanitary corps, and was to be used in time of peace or war to protect sanitary formations, establishments and personnel and material. Furthermore, in order that the emblem should be kept in its proper place, legislation has been recommended to prevent its use by private persons or by societies, and the executive committee has requested that all hospitals, health departments and like institutions kindly desist from the use of the red cross and suggests that some other insignia be substituted for it. Some commercial houses which manufacture surgical necessities and appliances, together with some nostrums, print the red cross on their packages of kidney plasters, dog soap and dyspepsia medicines. There is a nurse’s school which claims to teach nursing in a short term of a few weeks and calls the graduates “red cross nurses,” who go out in competition with those who have served several years in hospitals. In many of the large cities throughout the United States druggists are fond of naming their places “Red Cross Pharmacy.” In New York and Chicago physicians have placed this symbol on their automobiles—whether this gives them more privileges than they would otherwise have is a question; it appears more as an advertisement than an explanation for speed. On state occasions some use it as a chevron on the sleeve, and sometimes the police think they have a right to it during large parades and wear it before the crowd. There may, however, be raised the question of priority of use, inasmuch as the red cross was adopted by the American Medical Association before the laws were passed, and therefore the latter has a perfect right to its use. This all may be true, but when we come to consider the objects of the Red Cross as originally set forth in 1864 we must concede that its use was not intended solely for the medical man, but for all connected with the work of relief. Besides, we should be charitable enough to consider that we have appropriated an emblem devoted to humanitarian work. What, then, is the proper badge of the medical profession? In the United States Army the device of the surgeon is Mercury’s wand, consisting of a rod surmounted by a pair of wings with two serpents twined about it. Carefully examining the literature on the subject of Mercury we learn many facts arguing against the use of this later emblem in the healing art. We shall see that it belongs strictly to commerce and trade; the name “Mercury” itself is derived from the Latin _merx_, _mercis_—“goods.” Mercury was the Roman divinity of commerce and gain; also _mercor_, to traffic, is from the same root; the word _mercatus_ is akin to our English word “market,” as is also the word _mercator_, “merchant.”