is." for _Responsum Raphaelis_, Raphael's answer. The name of Raphael
was often seen on amulets and talismans. But our information regarding
this angel is derived chiefly from the Book of Tobit, where Raphael is
represented as the guide and counsellor of the young Tobias. In one of
the later _Midrashim_, Raphael appears as the angel commissioned to put
down the evil spirits that vexed the sons of Noah with plagues and
sicknesses after the Flood, and he it was who taught men the use of
"simples," and furnished materials for the "Book of Noah," the earliest
treatise on materia medica.[156:1]

A recent writer affirms that [Rx] is the emblem of the sun-god _Ra_, and
signifies "In the name of _Ra_," or "_Ra_, God of Life and Health,
inspire me."[156:2] This deity was regarded as the Supreme Being, not
only by the Egyptians, but by other heathen people of antiquity, because
the sun was the greatest and most brilliant of the planets.

In Egyptian hieroglyphics[156:3] _Ra_ was represented as a hawk-headed
man, holding in one hand the symbol of life, and in the other the royal
sceptre.

The medical symbol [Rx], still in use at the present day, owes its
origin, however, neither to the angel Raphael nor to the god _Ra_. It is
the ancient sign of Jupiter. This sign, which also symbolized the metal
tin, had many modifications, some of which were as follows: [Symbol:
Jupiter], [Symbol: Jupiter], [Symbol: Jupiter].

These were gradually replaced by the letter R, or its astrological
modification [Rx], which was equivalent to _Recipe_, Jupiter,--Take, O
Jupiter! We are told that the astrological signs were thus brought into
use during Nero's reign, and that the practice of Medicine was then and
afterwards regulated by the government. It is not improbable that
Christian physicians were obliged to follow the example of their heathen
professional brethren in prefixing to their prescriptions invocations to
Jupiter.[157:1]

Johann Michael Moscherosch (1600-1669), a learned German writer, offered
a unique explanation of the meaning of the medical symbol [Rx], which he
maintained to be equivalent to _Rec_, an abbreviation for _per decem_.
And he explained the significance of the latter as being that one
prescription out of ten might be expected to prove beneficial to the
patient. It is certain, wrote Dr. Otto A. Wall, in his volume, "The
Prescription," that pharmacies for the dispensing of medicines on
physicians' prescriptions were alrea