Pharmacy facts: The history of Hygeia
DID YOU KNOW … that the Bowl of Hygeia award program — which recognizes outstanding achievement in community service by pharmacy professionals – is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year?
And did you know the award was conceived by E. Claiborne Robins, pharmacist and then-president of the A.H. Robins Co. in Richmond? Robins, known for his involvement in community affairs, wanted to encourage a feeling of civic responsibility among his fellow pharmacists.
Robins, who died in 1995, graduated from the School of Pharmacy in 1933.
The award is presented annually to one pharmacist from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and each of Canada’s 10 provinces. The first states to present the award were Iowa, Louisiana, Oregon and Rhode Island in 1958.
This year, M. Keith Hodges, a 1989 graduate of VCU School of Pharmacy, won Virginia’s Bowl of Hygeia award.
Hygeia, the goddess of health in Greek mythology, was often pictured as caring for supplicants with a sacred snake wrapped around her arm or the stem of the bowl she held. Some legends trace the Bowl of Hygeia as far back as 13th-century Italian apothecaries or even to St. John the Apostle in the first century A.D.
In 1796, the image was used by the Parisian Society of Pharmacy. In 1964, the American Pharamacists Association adopted the bowl as a symbol of the pharmacy profession, with the bowl representing medicine and the snake representing healing … as in healing through medicine.
Hygeia, by the way, is also the origin of the word “hygiene.” (Some sources identify her as the goddess of sanitation and cleanliness, as well as health.)
The original sterling silver Bowl of Hygeia award — presented to E. Claiborne Robins on the 75th anniversary of his company — was retired with him.
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