Caduceu ou símbolo de Hermes é o Símbolo da Medicina, tem muitas interpretações, entre as quais a de que as cobras simbolizam o mistério e a sabedoria. Entretanto originalmente era o símbolo do comércio e dos viajantes. Johan Froebe, no século XVI, conhecido editor suíço, adotou o símbolo para sua editora, talvez para representar a transmissão de mensagens e de saber. O fato é que ele editava livros de medicina e o símbolo acabou associado à essa área, primeiro na Europa e anos mais tarde nos Estado Unidos, onde outras editoras de medicina também o adotaram.

O Bastão de Asclépio, para os romanos, Esculápio, que hoje é o Símbolo da Odontologia, na antiguidade foi o símbolo da medicina. Há vestígios do uso de símbolo idêntico na antiga Mesopotâmia, associado à medicina, à cura e ao saber. O movimento em ascensão representa a renovação.

Lâmpada de óleo Símbolo da Enfermagem no Brasil em homenagem a Florence Nightingale, precursora da Enfermagem Moderna.

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec, (1781/1826), French doctor, was one of the biggest clinical doctors of his time, specialized in respiratory diseases. He is considered the father of auscultation because he invented the stethoscope. The name stethoscope came from the contraction of two Greek words: “tethos” = chest, chest region and “skopeu” = observe.

The invention was casual, but due to Laennec dedication. In a medical appointment of an obese young girl, when facing the difficulties in auscultation only by putting his ear on her chest, like he did to other patients, he decided to roll a sheet of paper, making a cone, in order to hear her chest better. After, he improved the device, making it of wood in a shape similar to a funnel.

He was responsible for detailed descriptions of many respiratory diseases still unknown at that time, like bronchitis, emphysema, pulmonary infarction, pneumonia, pleurisy and tuberculosis. Ironically, he died from tuberculosis.

The French doctor Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille (1799-1869) is considered the pioneer of hemodynamic, after improving Hales manometer. In 1828, he presented a device called “hemodynameter”, which made him to win the golden medal of France Medicine Real Academy. This device used to measure the arterial pressure, but in an invasive way. Poiseuille demonstrated that the AP was also kept in small arteries; he studied also the blood viscosity and cardiovascular system resistance.

Other inventions and devices had already been developed by medicine and physiology researchers, since Hippocrates (460 b.C.) and Erasistratus (310 b. C.), going to Galileo Galilei (1571-1630) to nowadays modern and comfortable devices.