Snake oil

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Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment.png
Clark Stanley's Snake Oil

Snake oil is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, health care fraud, or a scam. Similarly, snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution. [1] The term comes from the "snake oil" that used to be sold as a cure-all elixir for many kinds of physiological problems. Many 18th-century European and 19th-century United States entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil (often mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, drugs, and compounds, but containing no snake-derived substances whatsoever) as "snake oil liniment", making claims about its efficacy as a panacea. Patent medicines that claimed to be panaceas were extremely common from the 18th century until the 20th century, particularly among vendors masking addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, alcohol, and opium-based concoctions or elixirs, to be sold at medicine shows as medication or products promoting health.

Contents

History

Oil from Chinese water snakes has for centuries been used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat joint pain such as arthritis and bursitis. It has been suggested that the use of snake oil in the United States may have originated with Chinese railway laborers in the mid-19th century, who worked long days of physical toil. Chinese snake oil may have had real benefits due to its high concentration of the omega−3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)—more than that of salmon; the rattlesnake oil later sold by charlatans did not contain a significant amount of omega−3. [2] In a modern study, erabu sea-snake oil was found to significantly improve the ability of mice to learn mazes, and their swimming endurance, over mice fed lard. [2] [3]

A snake oil recipe from 1719/1751 (Juan de Loeches, Tyrocinium Pharmaceticum), printed in Spain: "The viper oil of Mesues. Take 2 pounds of live snakes and 2 pounds 3 ounces of sesame oil. Cook slowly, covered in a glazed pot, until meat pulls away from the bone. Strain and store. Uses: Cleans the skin, removes pimples, impetigo, and other defects." 1751 - Juan de Loeches.png
A snake oil recipe from 1719/1751 (Juan de Loeches, Tyrocinium Pharmaceticum), printed in Spain: "The viper oil of Mesues. Take 2 pounds of live snakes and 2 pounds 3 ounces of sesame oil. Cook slowly, covered in a glazed pot, until meat pulls away from the bone. Strain and store. Uses: Cleans the skin, removes pimples, impetigo, and other defects."

Patent medicines originated in England, where a patent was granted to Richard Stoughton's elixir in 1712. [4] There were no federal regulations in the United States concerning the safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. [5] Thus, the widespread marketing and availability of dubiously advertised patent medicines without known properties or origin persisted in the US for a much greater number of years than in Europe.

Itinerant salesman in Rome draped with snakes An itinerant salesman adorned with snakes selling trinkets-c Wellcome V0016276.jpg
Itinerant salesman in Rome draped with snakes

In 18th-century Europe, especially in Britain, viper oil had been commonly recommended for many afflictions, including the ones for which oil from the rattlesnake (pit viper), a type of viper native to America, was subsequently favored to treat rheumatism and skin diseases. [6] Though there are accounts of oil obtained from the fat of various vipers in the Western world, the claims of its effectiveness as a medicine have never been thoroughly examined, and its efficacy is unknown. It is also likely that much of the snake oil sold by Western entrepreneurs was illegitimate, and did not contain ingredients derived from any kind of snake. Snake oil in the United Kingdom and the United States probably contained modified mineral oil. William Rockefeller Sr., the father of John D. Rockefeller, peddled literal snake oil. [7]

A historical reenactor representing a traveling snake oil salesman from the United States in 2014. Snake-oil salesman Professor Thaddeus Schmidlap at Enchanted Springs Ranch, Boerne, Texas, USA 28650a.jpg
A historical reenactor representing a traveling snake oil salesman from the United States in 2014.

A popular trope in Western films, selling snake oil is portrayed as a confidence trick: a traveling salesman purports to be a doctor (with false credentials), selling fake medicines with boisterous marketing hype, and supported by pseudo-scientific evidence. To increase sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a shill or a "toadie") will often attest to the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" will leave town before his customers realize they have been cheated. This trope is associated with the American Old West. However, the famous judgment that sparked the most controversy happened in 1917, when Stanley's Snake Oil was discovered to contain no actual snake oil, creating the notion that bottles of snake oil (and their salesmen) were essentially a fraud. [8] That case took place in Rhode Island, and involved snake oil manufactured in Massachusetts, long after and far away from the Old West. [9] [ better source needed ]

From cure-all to quackery

A report of the 1917 decision of the United States District Court for Rhode Island, fining Clark Stanley $20 for "misbranding" its "Clark Stanley Snake Oil Liniment". SnakeOilDecision.jpg
A report of the 1917 decision of the United States District Court for Rhode Island, fining Clark Stanley $20 for "misbranding" its "Clark Stanley Snake Oil Liniment".

Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment – produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King" – was tested by the United States government's Bureau of Chemistry, the precursor to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1916. [9] It was found to contain: mineral oil, 1% fatty oil (assumed to be tallow), capsaicin from chili peppers, turpentine, and camphor. [4]

In 1916, subsequent to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment was examined by the Bureau of Chemistry, and found to be drastically overpriced and of limited value. As a result, Stanley faced federal prosecution for peddling mineral oil in a fraudulent manner as snake oil. In his 1916 civil hearing instigated by federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, Stanley pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to the allegations against him, giving no admission of guilt. [9] His plea was accepted, and as a result, he was fined $20 [9] (about $560 in 2023). [10]

The term snake oil has since been established in popular culture as a reference to any worthless concoction sold as medicine, and has been extended to describe a wide-ranging degree of fraudulent goods, services, ideas, and activities such as worthless rhetoric in politics. By further extension, a snake oil salesman is commonly used in English to describe a quack, huckster, or charlatan.

Modern implications

False health products described by medical experts as "snake oil" continue to be marketed during the 21st century, including herbal medicines, dietary supplements, products such as Tibetan singing bowls (when used for healing) and treatments such as vaginal steaming. The company Goop has been accused of "selling snake oil" in some of its health products and recommendations. [11] [12]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Xinhua News Agency claimed that the herbal product Shuanghuanglian can prevent or treat infections from coronaviruses, stimulating sales across the United States, Russia, and China. However, the clinical studies on its effectiveness have been inconclusive. [13] [14] Su et al. published a report that the herbal substance has been shown in vitro to be cytotoxic "against a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2". [15] However, another government media outlet, People’s Daily, published a contrasting report urging citizens not to purchase the herbal remedy as it had not been recommended for coronavirus antiviral treatment and treatment measures had not passed clinical trials. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paregoric</span> Traditional patent medicine

Paregoric, or camphorated tincture of opium, also known as tinctura opii camphorata, is a traditional patent medicine known for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quackery</span> Promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices

Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman". The term quack is a clipped form of the archaic term quacksalver, derived from Dutch: kwakzalver a "hawker of salve" or rather somebody who boasted about their salves, more commonly known as ointments. In the Middle Ages the term quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares at markets by shouting to gain attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patent medicine</span> Medicine sold regardless of effectiveness

A patent medicine is a non-prescription medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name, and claimed to be effective against minor disorders and symptoms, as opposed to a prescription drug that could be obtained only through a pharmacist, usually with a doctor's prescription, and whose composition was openly disclosed. Many over-the-counter medicines were once ethical drugs obtainable only by prescription, and thus are not patent medicines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbal medicine</span> Study and use of supposed medicinal properties of plants

Herbal medicine is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies, such as the anti-malarial group of drugs called artemisinin isolated from Artemisia annua, a herb that was known in Chinese medicine to treat fever. There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of many plants used in 21st-century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or dosage. The scope of herbal medicine sometimes includes fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elixir</span> Sweet-flavored liquid used for medicinal purposes

An elixir is a sweet liquid used for medical purposes, to be taken orally and intended to cure one's illness. When used as a pharmaceutical preparation, an elixir contains at least one active ingredient designed to be taken orally.

A panacea is any supposed remedy that is claimed to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. Named after the Greek goddess of universal remedy Panacea, it was in the past sought by alchemists in connection with the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, a mythical substance that would enable the transmutation of common metals into gold. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, many "patent medicines" were claimed to be panaceas, and they became very big business. The term "panacea" is used in a negative way to describe the overuse of any one solution to solve many different problems, especially in medicine. The word has acquired connotations of snake oil and quackery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicinal plants</span> Plants or derivatives used to treat medical conditions in humans or animals

Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection against insects, fungi, diseases, against parasites and herbivorous mammals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicine show</span> Touring act

Medicine shows were touring acts that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European mountebank shows and were common in the United States in the nineteenth century, especially in the Old West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sequah Medicine Company</span>

Sequah Medicine Company was a medicine company that began in 1887 as the Sequah Medicine Co Ltd. It sold patent medicines such as prairie flower and Indian oil using traveling salesmen, known as Sequahs. The traveling salesmen were quack doctors. The original Sequah was William Henry Hartley, who founded the company selling supposed Native American remedies in Great Britain and Ireland. The successful pitch quickly drew imitators, to the annoyance of Hartley. One such example is Peter Alexander Gordon, who went under the pseudonym James Kaspar. Gordon sold the Sequah Patent Medicine in Great Britain, Ireland, the West Indies and North America and South Africa.

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Watkins Incorporated is a manufacturer of health remedies, baking products, and other household items. Founded in 1868, Watkins Incorporated is based in Winona, Minnesota, United States, which utilizes an omni-channel marketing strategy which includes a national retail sales force which focuses on selling to the retail channel as well as an independent sales force of 25,000 people to distribute its products.

Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab (ovine), sold under the brandname CroFab, is a snake antivenin, indicated for North American crotalid (rattlesnake, copperhead and cottonmouth/water moccasin) snake envenomation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Stanley</span> American fraudster who marketed snake oil as a patent medicine

Clark Stanley was an American herbalist and quack doctor who marketed a "snake oil" as a patent medicine, styling himself the "Rattlesnake King" until his fraudulent products were exposed in 1916, popularizing the pejorative title of the "snake oil salesman".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skunk oil</span>

Skunk oil, also referred to as skunk grease, is an oil that is obtained from the two lateral glands that run the length of a skunk's back. Skunks store fat in these glands for use during hibernation or semi-hibernation in warmer climates. Skunk oil has minimal odor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crocodile oil</span> Extract of fatty tissue of crocodiles

Crocodile oil is extracted from the fatty tissues of crocodiles. Crocodile fat is a product of commercial farming, evident in Thailand. Historically, for centuries crocodile oil has been used by traditional practitioners across the globe, including Chinese traditional medicine, Southeast Asia, Ancient Egypt. Crocodile oil has been used since the nineteenth century for different purposes in different cultures. Due to the oil's components, its richness in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, it is sold as ointment for treatment of skin conditions, skin structure enhancement, collagen deposition, and medicine for illnesses. In recent times, the use of crocodile oil has invited criticism from the use of crocodile oil as there is an increased demand for cruelty-free and vegan-friendly beauty products in consumers of today's society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamlin's Wizard Oil</span> American patent medicine

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<i>Senega officinalis</i> Species of flowering plant

Senega officinalis is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family, Polygalaceae. It is native to North America, where it is found in southern Canada and the central and eastern United States. Its common names include Seneca snakeroot, senega snakeroot, senegaroot, rattlesnake root, and mountain flax. Its genus name honors the Seneca people, a Native American group who used the plant to treat snakebite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Ray Watkins</span> American entrepreneur

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References

  1. ↑ "snake oil salesman". The Free Dictionary. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 Graber, Cynthia (1 November 2007). "Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 18 November 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  3. ↑ Zhang, Guihua; Higuchi, Tomoyuki; Shirai, Nobuya; Suzuki, Hiramitsu; Shimizu, Eiji (2007). "Effect of Erabu Sea Snake (Laticauda semifasciata) Lipids on the Swimming Endurance of Mice". Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 51 (3): 281–287. doi:10.1159/000105450. ISSN   0250-6807. PMID   17622788. S2CID   39274963.
  4. 1 2 Nickell, J (1 December 1998). "Peddling Snake Oil; Investigative Files". Skeptical Inquirer . 8 (4). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Archived from the original on 21 September 2017. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  5. ↑ "The Long Struggle for the Law". Food and Drug Administration. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  6. ↑ Klauber, Laurence M. (1997). Rattlesnakes, vol II. University of California Press. p. 1050.
  7. ↑ Olsen, Brad (14 January 2021). Beyond Esoteric: Escaping Prison Planet. CCC Publishing (published 2021). p. 117. ISBN   9781888729757. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022. [...] William Rockefeller, father to the first billionaire John D. [...] was a literal snake oil salesman and con artist who sold 'cancer cures' to women door-to-door.
  8. ↑ A History Of 'Snake Oil Salesmen' Archived 21 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine , August 26, 2013, Lakshmi Gandhi
  9. 1 2 3 4 Chemistry, United States Bureau of (1917). Service and Regulatory Announcements. U.S. Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on 23 July 2024. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  10. ↑ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Berman, Michele R.; Boguski, Mark S. (31 January 2019). "Gwyneth Paltrow's Snake Oil". www.medpagetoday.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  12. ↑ Belluz, Julia (23 June 2017). "NASA just debunked Gwyneth Paltrow's latest snake oil". Vox. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  13. ↑ Palmer, James. "Chinese Media Is Selling Snake Oil to Fight the Wuhan Virus". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  14. ↑ Phillips, James; Selzer, Jordan; Noll, Samantha; Alptunaer, Timur (31 March 2020). "Opinion : Covid-19 Has Closed Stores, but Snake Oil Is Still for Sale". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 April 2020.
  15. ↑ Su, Hai-xia; Yao, Sheng; Zhao, Wen-Feng; Li, Min-jun; Liu, Jia; Shang, Wei-Juan; Xie, Hang; Ke, Chang-Qiang; Hu, Hang-Chen; Gao, Mei-na; Yu, Kun-Qian; Liu, Hong; Shen, Jing-Shan; Tang, Wei; Zhang, Lei-ke; Xiao, Geng-fu; Ni, Li; Wang, Dao-wen; Zuo, Jian-Ping; Jiang, Hua-Liang; Bai, Fang; Wu, Yan; Ye, Yang; Xu, Ye-Chun (2020). "Anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities in vitro of Shuanghuanglian preparations and bioactive ingredients". Acta Pharmacologica Sinica. 41 (9): 1167–1177. doi:10.1038/s41401-020-0483-6. PMC   7393338 . PMID   32737471.
  16. ↑ Gan, Nectar (1 February 2020). "A traditional Chinese remedy said to help fight Wuhan coronavirus sparks skepticism -- and panic buying". CNN. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
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