
Palm Trees and Potions: On Portuguese Pharmacy Signs - benbreen
http://recipes.hypotheses.org/8095
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schoen
Lisbon has a very amazing and elaborate pharmacy museum at the headquarters of
their own pharmaceutical society.

[http://www.museudafarmacia.pt/](http://www.museudafarmacia.pt/)

It would be interesting to get their take on this topic (not to suggest that
this author's interpretation is in any way mistaken).

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benbreen
Author here (and original poster). That's a great idea. I'm going to write
them to see what they think about the origin of the symbol, and will update
the post if they respond.

I've always loved the location of that museum by the way - not only
beautifully situated facing the water, but also across from a park frequented
by sellers of hashish (at least it was when I lived in Lisbon back in 2012).
The big iron fence dividing the licit drug museum from the people selling
illicit drugs right in front of it has since become my favorite metaphor for
the history of drugs.

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sevensven
You can try to ask it to this professor, he will probably know the answer or
will be interested and find it. His email is on the web page:

[http://www.museus.ulisboa.pt/en/jpsdias](http://www.museus.ulisboa.pt/en/jpsdias)

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spqr0a1
I wonder if there's any connection to the snake on a staff widely used as a
symbol of medicine.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius)

It which case its origin may be a representation of the treatment for guinea
worm.

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dghughes
I find it odd medical organizations in the USA use the symbol of the caduceus
not the Rod of Asclepius I wonder how that came about.

I've read the caduceus is supposedly an ancient symbol or at least in some way
connected to prostitution.

A bit of a faux pas to choose such a symbol!

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lazyant
In many countries the symbol for pharmacists is a snake over a mortar
[http://www.colfar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=arti...](http://www.colfar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=110)

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paol
Interesting, that page attributes use of the snake and palm tree to both
Portugal and France.

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caiob
Great read. Portugal has such an interesting history.

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pjmlp
Nice read, specially as Portuguese.

Thanks for the article.

