Information AboutSnake Oil |
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Snake oil is a Traditional Chinese Medicine used for joint pain. However, the most common usage of the words is as a derogatory term for medicines to imply that they are fake, Fraudulent , and usually ineffective. The expression is also applied Metaphorically to any product with exaggerated Marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality. ''Snake Oil and Holy Water'' is also the title of a well-known essay by Richard Dawkins attacking the convergence of science and religion, and '''''Snake Oil''''' is the title of a book by John Diamond attacking Alternative Medicine . HISTORY United States Snake oil originally came from China, where it was used as a remedy for inflammation and pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis , Bursitis , and other similar conditions. Chinese Labourers on railroad gangs involved in building the Transcontinental Railroad to link North America coast to coast gave it to Europeans with joint pain. When rubbed on the skin above the pain, snake oil brought relief, or so it was claimed. This claim was ridiculed by other rival medicine salesmen, especially those selling Patent Medicine s. In time, ''snake oil'' became a generic name for the many medicines that were marketed as a Panacea or miraculous remedy, whose ingredients were usually secret, unidentified, or mis-characterized, and mostly inert or ineffective. At best the Placebo Effect might provide some relief for whatever the problem might have been. The snake oil peddler became a — such as snake oil — with boisterous marketing Hype , often supported by Pseudo-scientific evidence. To enhance sales, an accomplice in the crowd would often 'attest' the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" would prudently leave town before his customers realized that they had been cheated. This practice is also called "grifting" and its practitioners " Grifters ". W. C. Fields portrayed a Western frontier American snake oil salesman in '' Poppy '' (1936), complete with crowd accomplice; his (transparently fraudulent -- to the movie audience) demonstration of a miraculous cure for hoarseness from the back of a Buckboard ignited a purchasing frenzy. The English musician and comedy writer Vivian Stanshall satirised a miracle cosmetic as "Rillago - the great ape repellent" and many of J. B. Morton 's Beachcomber books and radio programmes included short spoof advertisements for "Snibbo" a fictional treatment allegedly tackling various unlikely human conditions. The practice of selling dubious remedies for real (or imagined) ailments still occurs today, albeit with some updated marketing techniques. Cures for chronic diseases (eg, diabetes mellitus) for which there are only symptomatic treatments available from 'mainline' medicine, are especially common. The term ''snake oil peddling'' is used as a derogotary term to describe such practices. An alternate theory for the origins of the term "snake oil" is that it was a corruption of "Seneca oil", after the Seneca Tribe in the Eastern United States, who were known to use Petroleum from natural seeps as a liniment for skin ailments. COMPOSITION OF SNAKE OIL The composition of snake oil medicines can vary markedly between products. Snake oil sold in San Francisco 's Chinatown in 1989 was found to contain:
At 20% EPA, Chinese water snake is the richest known source of parent of series 3 Prostaglandin s. Like essential Fatty Acid s, EPA can be absorbed through the skin. Salmon Oil, the next best source contains 18% EPA. Rattlesnake oil contains 8.5% EPA. ''Stanley's snake oil'', produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King", was tested by the federal government in 1917 . It was found to contain:
(Note that this makes the above similar in composition to modern-day Capsaicin -based liniments. Thus, the original snake oil may have worked rather well as intended, even if it did not contain its alleged ingredients.) EXTERNAL LINKS
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