To the Editor: —In the discussion of the caduceus as a medical emblem (The Journal, April 26, p. 1243), your commentator states that "whoever recommended its use as a medical emblem in this country has either been conducted by Mercury, his titular deity, to join the souls of the dead in the world below, or is keeping unusually quiet." In regard to this pronouncement, I have made inquiry of Col. John Van R. Hoff, M. C., U. S. Army (ret.), until recently editor of the Military Surgeon , and largely responsible for the introduction of the caduceus as part of the insignia on the medical officer's uniform, and have learned from him that it was introduced in 1902 as a badge of neutrality, appropriate to the medical officer as a noncombatant. This point, emphasized in Colonel McCulloch's article in the Military Surgeon , is one which your correspondent has overlooked, namely, that