Snake oil#United States

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.{{cite web |title=Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something |last=Graber |first=Cynthia |work=Scientific American |date=1 November 2007 |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/snake-oil-salesmen-knew-something/ |access-date=26 March 2021 |archive-date=18 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071118053503/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=snake-oil-salesmen-knew-something |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite journal|last1=Zhang|first1=Guihua|last2=Higuchi|first2=Tomoyuki|last3=Shirai|first3=Nobuya|last4=Suzuki|first4=Hiramitsu|last5=Shimizu|first5=Eiji|title=Effect of Erabu Sea Snake (Laticauda semifasciata) Lipids on the Swimming Endurance of Mice|journal=Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism|volume=51|issue=3|year=2007|pages=281–287|issn=0250-6807|doi=10.1159/000105450|pmid=17622788 |s2cid=39274963 }}

File:1751 - Juan de Loeches.png

Patent medicines originated in England, where a patent was granted to Richard Stoughton's elixir in 1712.{{cite journal |url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/peddling_snake_oil/ |title=Peddling Snake Oil; Investigative Files |date=1 December 1998 |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry |last=Nickell |first=J |volume=8 |issue=4 |access-date=4 December 2011 |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |archive-date=21 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921095851/https://www.csicop.org/sb/show/peddling_snake_oil |url-status=live }} There were no federal regulations in the United States concerning the safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.{{cite web |url=https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/long-struggle-law |title=The Long Struggle for the Law |publisher=Food and Drug Administration |access-date=4 December 2011 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508081817/https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/long-struggle-law |url-status=dead }} 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.

File:An itinerant salesman adorned with snakes selling trinkets-c Wellcome V0016276.jpg

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.{{cite book |title=Rattlesnakes, vol II |last=Klauber |first=Laurence M. |date=1997 |publisher=University of California Press |page=1050}} 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.{{cite book|last=Olsen|first=Brad|title=Beyond Esoteric: Escaping Prison Planet|date=14 January 2021|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8a8LEAAAQBAJ|publisher=CCC Publishing|publication-date=2021|page=117|isbn=9781888729757|access-date=16 July 2022|quote=[...] 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.|archive-date=16 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716045229/https://books.google.com/books?id=8a8LEAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}

File:Snake-oil salesman Professor Thaddeus Schmidlap at Enchanted Springs Ranch, Boerne, Texas, USA 28650a.jpg

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.[https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/26/215761377/a-history-of-snake-oil-salesmen A History Of 'Snake Oil Salesmen'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421040855/https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/26/215761377/a-history-of-snake-oil-salesmen |date=21 April 2023 }}, August 26, 2013, Lakshmi Gandhi That case took place in Rhode Island, and involved snake oil manufactured in Massachusetts, long after and far away from the Old West.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-Og7AAAAYAAJ&q=%22snake+oil%22&pg=PA592 |title= Service and Regulatory Announcements |last= Chemistry |first= United States Bureau of |date= 1917 |publisher= U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date= 20 October 2020 |archive-date= 23 July 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240723155218/https://books.google.com/books?id=-Og7AAAAYAAJ&q=%22snake+oil%22&pg=PA592#v=snippet&q=%22snake%20oil%22&f=false |url-status= live }}{{better source|date=July 2022}}

File:SnakeOilDecision.jpg, 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. It was found to contain: mineral oil, 1% fatty oil (assumed to be tallow), capsaicin from chili peppers, turpentine, and camphor.

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. His plea was accepted, and as a result, he was fined $20 (about ${{Inflation|US|20|1916|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{Inflation/fn|US}}

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.

{{See also|COVID-19 misinformation#Herbal treatments}}

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.{{cite news |last1=Berman |first1=Michele R. |last2=Boguski |first2=Mark S. |title=Gwyneth Paltrow's Snake Oil |url=https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/celebritydiagnosis/77733 |access-date=15 June 2021 |work=www.medpagetoday.com |date=31 January 2019 |language=en |archive-date=14 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214234650/https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/celebritydiagnosis/77733 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Belluz |first1=Julia |title=NASA just debunked Gwyneth Paltrow's latest snake oil |url=https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/23/15861586/gwyneth-paltrow-nasa-healing-stickers |access-date=15 June 2021 |work=Vox |date=23 June 2017 |language=en |archive-date=13 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213074928/https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/23/15861586/gwyneth-paltrow-nasa-healing-stickers |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite news |last=Palmer |first=James |title=Chinese Media Is Selling Snake Oil to Fight the Wuhan Virus |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/03/tcm-shuanghuanglian-pseudoscience-chinese-media-is-selling-snake-oil-to-fight-the-wuhan-virus/ |access-date=3 April 2020 |work=Foreign Policy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205162551/https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/03/tcm-shuanghuanglian-pseudoscience-chinese-media-is-selling-snake-oil-to-fight-the-wuhan-virus/|archive-date=5 February 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Phillips |first1=James |last2=Selzer |first2=Jordan |last3=Noll |first3=Samantha |last4=Alptunaer |first4=Timur |title=Opinion : Covid-19 Has Closed Stores, but Snake Oil Is Still for Sale |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/opinion/fake-treatment-cure-coronavirus.html |work=The New York Times |date=31 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401191016/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/opinion/fake-treatment-cure-coronavirus.html|archive-date=1 April 2020}} 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".{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41401-020-0483-6|title=Anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities in vitro of Shuanghuanglian preparations and bioactive ingredients|year=2020|last1=Su|first1=Hai-xia|last2=Yao|first2=Sheng|last3=Zhao|first3=Wen-Feng|last4=Li|first4=Min-jun|last5=Liu|first5=Jia|last6=Shang|first6=Wei-Juan|last7=Xie|first7=Hang|last8=Ke|first8=Chang-Qiang|last9=Hu|first9=Hang-Chen|last10=Gao|first10=Mei-na|last11=Yu|first11=Kun-Qian|last12=Liu|first12=Hong|last13=Shen|first13=Jing-Shan |last14=Tang|first14=Wei |last15=Zhang|first15=Lei-ke |last16=Xiao|first16=Geng-fu |last17=Ni|first17=Li |last18=Wang|first18=Dao-wen |last19=Zuo|first19=Jian-Ping |last20=Jiang|first20=Hua-Liang |last21=Bai|first21=Fang| last22=Wu|first22=Yan |last23=Ye|first23=Yang |last24=Xu|first24=Ye-Chun|journal=Acta Pharmacologica Sinica|volume=41|issue=9|pages=1167–1177|pmid=32737471|pmc=7393338}} 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.{{cite news|last=Gan|first=Nectar|title=A traditional Chinese remedy said to help fight Wuhan coronavirus sparks skepticism -- and panic buying|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/01/asia/chinese-traditional-medicine-claims-coronavirus-intl-scli-hnk/index.html|agency=CNN|date=1 Feb 2020|access-date=6 February 2024|archive-date=5 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205162551/https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/01/asia/chinese-traditional-medicine-claims-coronavirus-intl-scli-hnk/index.html|url-status=live}}

==See also==

• Beecham's Pills
• Daffy's Elixir
• Dalby's Carminative
• False advertising
• Gerin oil
• Hadacol
• Homeopathy
• Lydia Pinkham
• MLM companies
• Nine oils
• Orvietan
• Patent medicine
• Revalenta arabica
• Turlington's Balsam
• :zh:狗皮膏 (gǒupí gāo, "dog-skin poultice"), a Chinese term similarly used to describe fraudulent medicine

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• {{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/08/26/215761377/a-history-of-snake-oil-salesmen|access-date=6 July 2014|title=A History Of 'Snake Oil Salesmen'|work=Code Switch|publisher=National Public Radio|date=26 August 2013|first=Lakshmi|last=Gandhi}}
• {{cite book|last1=Behn|first1=A. R.|title=Secret remedies, what they cost and what they contain, based on analyses made for the British Medical Association|date=1909|publisher=British Medical Association|url=https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b23982160|access-date=25 August 2020}}

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Category:Fraud

Category:Patent medicines

Category:Ointments

Category:Metaphor

Category:Oils