description
- Gold-headed canes in medicine date from an era when they were the universal symbol of the profession. The passage of one particular cane, from John Radcliffe to Richard Mead to Anthony Askew to William Pitcairn to David Pitcairn and, finally, to Matthew Baillie in the 18th and early 19th centuries, came to define the Gold‐Headed Cane as a symbol of the highest degree of excellence in the medical profession.