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     <td width="50%" align="center"><h3><font color="yellow">Asclepius</h3></font>
     <br>Asclepius, the god of healing, cured the ancient Greeks with his healing powers.  His staff
     with a single snake spiraling around it represented youth and regrowth as the snake would remove its 
     skin by rubbing against the rough surface.  The god himself depicts as an elder person, full beard,
     and wearing a toga that exposes his torso.
     <p>The origin of the Greek deity stems from Sumerian mythology with their physician god Ningishzida (although he yielded a Caduceus).
     The major difference between the two gods is that the Greek god appears very human while the Sumerian
     god has the body of a snake and the head of a man.</td></tr>
<tr><td width="50%" align="center"><h3><font color="yellow">Caduceus</h3></font>
     <br>Similar to the staff of Asclepius, a Caduceus has two snakes helixing around a winged staff.
     Several greek myths elude to the origin of the staff: 1) Tiresias stabbed two snakes and changed 
     gender depending upon the gender of the victim snake, and then Hermes took the staff for himself.  2)
     Hermes entertained Apollo with music and did so in such a fashioned that he obtained the messenger
     position on Mount Olympus and was granted the magical Caduceus.  3)  Hermes stopped a feud between
     two snakes with his winged staff and made peace between them.  4)  The staff came from Iris, messenger
     goddess of Hera.
     <p>Hermes represented alchemy; basically early forms of chemistry.  Since alchemists created healing
     agents many were considered physicians.  The staff of Hermes from then on has been synonomous with 
     healthcare and medicine.  Even though the Caduceus is not the staff of Asclepius, both symbols can 
     equally be used for medical representation because both have many medicinal inceptions.
     <td height="153px" align="center"><img src="asclepius staff.jpg"></td></tr>
<tr><td width="50%" align="center"><img src="moses_serpent.jpg"></td>
     <td width="50%" align="center"><h3><font color="yellow">Moses</h3></font>
     <br>Moses has a few occurrences with staffs and snakes.  The first, and most commonly known, came from
     Moses' intimidation towards the Egyptian Pharoah but due to mistranslations, historians do not know if
     the staff of Moses was actually a snake or a crocodile.  Digression aside, this symbol represented the 
     plagues but would only change meaning until after the Israelite exodus.
     <p>The new interpretation of the staff and snake came from the story of when the Israelites succumbed 
     to serphent bites of which were indiginous to the desert.  Moses then made a staff and spiraled a snake
     around it and said that all who looked upon this creation shall be instantly healed from the venom.
     The majority attributed this to the miracle of God, but a few created a cult that specifically worshipped 
     the staff and snake.  Later, King Hezekiah, however, silenced the idolaters.
<tr><td align="center" width="50%"><h3><font color="yellow">The Plague</font></h3>
     The 14th century spawned quite a few traditions that most take for granted today.  For example, in the midst
     of the black death, ships had to remain in the harbor for forty days which (alledgedly) prevented 
     anymore of the disease entering.  "Forty days" spoken in Italian with a Venetian influence translates
     as "Quarantine".  
     <p>Another seemingly innocent child's rhyme spoken as: "Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posie,
     ashes, ashes, we all fall down" stems from the horrors of the symptoms and treatments.  A ring around
     a rosie is the trademark rash that is caused by the plague bacteria Yersinia pestis, posie would ward off
     the infection (again alledgedly), ashes result from the people burning their dead stopping further
     incidences, and finally falling down shows the ultimate side effect of the plague.
     <p>And finally, the noble Red Cross organization uses the symbol of the red cross.  Upon infection,
     authorities would paint a red cross on your door for Christian purposes as well as a foreboding for others
     to stay away.</td>
     <td align="center" width="50%"><img src="yersinia pestis.jpg"></td>
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