Then and Now

"A motion proposing a faculty tie was adopted in 1956. The right to wear the tie was to be confined to clinical-year medical students and graduates. Hercules Michael du Preez, then an MBChB student at the school, submitted the design which was finally accepted. The tie brings out the association of the City of Cape Town and Medicine. It consists of a shield embodying gold annulets on a red background and a blue caduceus on a silver ground. The caduceus is a stylised representation of the surgical staff entwined by two serpents carried by Hermes. Originally considered to be an enchanters wand and the symbol of power over life and death, it has, together with the staff of Aesculapius, became a recognised symbol of the medical profession."
- from "Inyanga", 1957