Caduceus wild downtown

If you look up while you walk around downtown, you start noticing all these buildings adorned with caduceuses, such as 12 Post Office Square, above. Was fin-de-siecle Boston full of doctor's offices and hospitals? No, it turns out that Mercury, the Roman god whose staff ultimately led to MGH was also the protector of merchants and travel, and so 19th-century Boston traders felt his two-snaked staff the perfect adornment for their offices. The Boston Flour and Grain Exchange pairs a caduceus with Neptune's trident, from back in the days when Boston was a major seaport.