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 Clark Stanley's Snake Oil. Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the words is as a derogatory term for compounds offered as medicines which implies that they are fake, fraudulent, or ineffective. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ...
The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...
Image File history File links Snake-oil. ...
Traditional Chinese medicine shop in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. ...
For other uses, see Joint (disambiguation). ...
In the broadest sense a fraud is any crime (or civil wrong) for gain that utilises some deception practiced on the victim as its principal method. ...
This article is about metaphor in literature and rhetoric. ...
For the magazine, see Marketing (magazine). ...
History Snake oil originally came from China, where it is called shéyóu (蛇油). There, it was used as a remedy for inflammation and pain in rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis, and other similar conditions. Snake oil is still used as a pain reliever in China. Fats and oils from snakes are higher in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) than other sources, so snake oil was actually a plausible remedy for joint pain as these are thought to have inflammation-reducing properties. Snake oil is still sold in traditional Chinese pharmacy stores. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is traditionally considered a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the joints. ...
Bursitis is the inflammation of one or more bursae, or small sacs of synovial fluid, in the body. ...
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA or also icosapentaenoic acid) is an omega-3 fatty acid. ...
Chinese labourers on railroad gangs — involved in building the Transcontinental Railroad to link North America coast to coast — gave snake oil to Europeans with joint pain. When rubbed on the skin at the painful site, snake oil was claimed to bring relief. This claim was ridiculed by rival medicine salesmen, especially those selling patent medicines. In time, snake oil became a generic name for many compounds marketed as panaceas or miraculous remedies, whose ingredients were usually secret, unidentified, or mis-characterized — and mostly inert or ineffective, although the placebo effect might provide some relief for whatever the problem might have been. Coolie labourer circa 1900 in Zhenjiang, China. ...
This article refers to a railroad built in the United States between Omaha and Sacramento completed in 1869. ...
E.W. Kembles Deaths Laboratory in Colliers Magazine in 1906 Patent medicine is the somewhat misleading term given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were, for the most part, actually medicines with trademarks, not patented medicines. ...
The panacea (IPA ), named after the Greek goddess of healing, Panacea, was supposed to be a remedy that would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Placebo. ...
Patented snake oil remedies actually originated in England, where a patent was granted to Richard Stoughton's Elixir in 1712. [1] Since there was no Federal regulation in the USA concerning safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906 Food and Drugs Act. [2] and various medicine salesmen or manufacturers seldom had enough skills in analytical chemistry to analyze the contents and actually find out what, if anything, made snake oil the miracle medicine it was claimed to be, snake oil became the archetype of hoax. American snake fats do not have EPA contents as high as those of the Chinese water snake. The American snake oils were possibly less efficient pain relievers than the original Chinese snake oil — further promoting the hoax stereotype. For other uses, see Archetype (disambiguation). ...
A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. ...
The snake oil peddler became a stock character in Western movies: a travelling "doctor" with dubious credentials, selling some medicine (such as snake oil) with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence, typically bogus. To enhance sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a "shill") 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". This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Broncho Billy Anderson, from The Great Train Robbery The Western movie is one of the classic American film genres. ...
For the chemical substances known as medicines, see medication. ...
Hype! is also the name of a documentary film about grunge music. ...
A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ...
A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services who pretends no association to the seller and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer. ...
Confidence Man redirects here. ...
The practice of selling dubious remedies for real (or imagined) ailments still occurs today, albeit with some updated marketing techniques. Claims of cures for chronic diseases (for example, diabetes mellitus), for which there are only symptomatic treatments available from mainstream medicine, are especially common. The term snake oil peddling is used as a derogatory term to describe such practices. For the disease characterized by excretion of large amounts of very dilute urine, see diabetes insipidus. ...
An alternate theory for the origins of the term "snake oil" is that it was a corruption of "Seneca oil". The Senecas, a tribe in the Eastern United States, were known to use petroleum from natural seeps as a liniment for skin ailments. However, Native Americans are known to have used rattlesnake fat and the herb snakeroot for various purposes. The Seneca are a Native American people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. ...
Petro redirects here. ...
Native Americans redirects here. ...
Species 27 species; see list of rattlesnake species and subspecies. ...
Media adaptations - Poppy (1936 film)
- W. C. Fields's film about a western frontier American snake oil salesman complete with a surreptitious crowd accomplice. His demonstration (from the back of a buckboard transparently fraudulent —- to the movie audience) of a miraculous cure for hoarseness ignited a comic purchasing frenzy.
- Disney's Pete's Dragon
- The greedy "Doc" Terminus, played by Jim Dale, gave a testament to the persuasive power of the snake oil salesman. Dealing with a crowd of people he had conned on a prior visit, Terminus turns them from angry vengeance-seekers to believers once more, paying top dollar for Terminus' products despite their previous ineffectiveness.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Mark Twain presents Aunt Polly as a true believer in various sorts of snake oil, though not always in the form of an alleged medicine. She also adopted cold showers as a cure-all at one point in Tom's childhood. For a time she insisted that Tom Sawyer take painkillers every day, simply because she thought it would be good for him, until Tom gave some to a cat, who then acted crazy. After seeing the cat, Aunt Polly no longer forces Tom to take pain killers.
- Say Say Say's music video
- In a more modern appearance of grifting in pop-culture, the collaboration of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson in 1983 produced a music video for Say Say Say which depicts McCartney as the salesman selling a dubious strength elixr from the back of a truck and Jackson as his accomplice amongst the audience.
- Beachcomber
- Many of J. B. Morton's books and radio programs included short spoof advertisements for "Snibbo" a fictional treatment allegedly tackling various unlikely human conditions.
English musician and comedy writer Vivian Stanshall satirized a miracle cosmetic as "Rillago—the great ape repellent" and W. C. Fields (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946) was an American juggler, comedian, and actor. ...
A four-wheeled wagon of simple construction meant to be drawn by a horse or other large animal. ...
Walt Disney Productions is the former name of The Walt Disney Company, which it held from 1929 to 1986. ...
Petes Dragon (first released on November 3, 1977) is a live-action/animated musical feature film from Walt Disney Productions. ...
Jim Dale and Glenn Close in 2006 performing Busker Alley. ...
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in the Antebellum South on the Mississippi River in St. ...
An analgesic (colloquially known as a painkiller) is any member of the diverse group of drugs used to relieve pain (achieve analgesia). ...
Say Say Say was a 1983 hit single for Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, produced by George Martin. ...
Beachcomber was a nom de plume used by surrealist humorous columnists D. B. Wyndham-Lewis and John Bingham Morton as authors of a Daily Express column called By the Way. The column was written by Wyndham-Lewis between 1917 and 1924 and subsequently by Morton until 1975; it was revived...
John Cameron Andrieu Bingham Morton, better known by his preferred abbreviation J. B. Morton (June 7, 1893–May 10, 1979) was a British humourous writer noted for his authorship of a column called By the Way under the pen name Beachcomber in the Daily Express from 1924 to 1975. ...
Lifes like that sometimes, isnt it? — Stanshall prepares to sing The Sound of Music with the Bonzo Dog Band on Do Not Adjust Your Set. ...
Composition of snake oil
 Snake oil tablets on sale at a market in Marrakech. The composition of snake oil medicines varies markedly between products. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2136 × 2848 pixel, file size: 1. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2136 × 2848 pixel, file size: 1. ...
For the record label, see Marrakesh Records. ...
Snake oil sold in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1989 was found to contain: This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...
This article is about sections of an urban area associated with a large number of Chinese residents or commercial activities. ...
- 75% unidentified carrier material, including camphor
- 25% oil from Chinese water snakes, itself consisting of:
The Chinese water snake (Enhydris chinensis) is the richest known source of EPA, the starting material the body uses to make the series 3 prostaglandins. These prostaglandins are the biochemical messengers which control some aspects of inflammation, rather like aspirin which also affects the prostaglandin system. Like essential fatty acids, EPA can be absorbed through the skin. Salmon oil, the next best source, contains 18% EPA. Rattlesnake oil contains 8.5% EPA. R-phrases 11-20/21/22-36/37/38 S-phrases 16-26-36 RTECS number EX1260000 (R) EX1250000 (S) Supplementary data page Structure and properties n, εr, etc. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
See Nomenclature of essential fatty acids for terms and discussion of ω (omega) nomenclature. ...
Myristic acid, also called Tetradecanoic acid, is a common saturated fatty acid found in dairy products. ...
Stearic acid (IUPAC systematic name: octadecanoic acid) is one of the useful types of saturated fatty acids that comes from many animal and vegetable fats and oils. ...
Oleic acid is a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid found in various animal and vegetable sources. ...
Linoleic acid (LA) is an unsaturated omega-6 fatty acid. ...
Arachidonic acid (AA) is an omega-6 fatty acid 20:4(ω-6). ...
E1 - Alprostadil I2 - Prostacyclin A prostaglandin is any member of a group of lipid compounds that are derived enzymatically from fatty acids and have important functions in the animal body. ...
In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail (chain), which is either saturated or unsaturated. ...
Species 27 species; see list of rattlesnake species and subspecies. ...
Stanley's snake oil – produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King" – was tested by the federal government in 1917. It was found to contain: Clark Stanley was known as the Rattlesnake King and for popularizing snake oil. ...
1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ...
(Note that this makes the above similar in composition to modern-day capsaicin-based liniments. Thus, this early snake oil may have worked somewhat as intended, even if it did not contain its alleged ingredients.) Mineral oil or liquid petrolatum is a by-product in the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline. ...
Species C. annuum (incl. ...
For the band, see Turpentine (band). ...
R-phrases 11-20/21/22-36/37/38 S-phrases 16-26-36 RTECS number EX1260000 (R) EX1250000 (S) Supplementary data page Structure and properties n, εr, etc. ...
Capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is the active component of chilli peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. ...
Possible vindication Given Dr. Richard Kunin's 1989 analysis[1], it appears that the Chinese snake oil made from Chinese water snakes is very high in EPA. This substance is known to be a pain reliever, as EPAs are absorbed through the skin and are the parent of the series 3 prostaglandins which inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory series 2 prostaglandins, and the Chinese snake oil products may contain up to 4% of it. Snake oil does not have the dubious reputation in China that it has in the US and elsewhere in the Western world, and it is used widely in traditional Chinese medicine. However, it is not seen as a panacea in China either; there it is used only as relief for arthritis and joint pain. Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ...
Occident redirects here. ...
The panacea (IPA ), named after the Greek goddess of healing, Panacea, was supposed to be a remedy that would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. ...
From a purely pharmacochemical perspective, it is likely that the genuine Chinese snake oil is not fraudulent, at least for its intended purpose, since EPA indeed is an effective anti-inflammatory agent. On the other hand, American products made from rattlesnake fats, which have at most 1/3 of the EPA concentration of Enhydris chinensis fat, are likely to have been inferior or even useless for similar purposes because of their lower or even nonexistent anti-inflammatory contents - aforementioned Stanley's snake oil containe no EPA at all! 19th century snake oil peddlers and apothecarians seldom had any serious knowledge of chemistry or pharmacology. It is likely that they did not understand the action mechanism of the Chinese product, or even know its functional ingredient.[citation needed] Instead of analyzing and reverse engineering the authentic remedy, they tried to imitate it with unimpressive results. Such inferior or even fraudulent products gave snake oil the reputation it has today.[[3]] Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
For other uses, see Chemistry (disambiguation). ...
Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmakon (φάÏμακον) meaning drug, and lego (λÎγω) to tell (about)) is the study of how drugs interact with living organisms to produce a change in function. ...
Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ...
See also For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ...
Look up elixir in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
For other uses, see Goanna (disambiguation). ...
A golden hammer is any tool, technology, paradigm, snake oil, buzzword or similar whose proponents enthusiastically sing its praises. ...
Homeopathic remedy Rhus toxicodendron, derived from poison ivy. ...
The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. ...
The universal panacea (PAN-ah-see-ah), one of the goals sought by many alchemists, was a remedy that would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. ...
Pietro Longhi: The Charlatan, 1757 Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe questionable medical practices. ...
Traditional Chinese medicine shop in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. ...
References - ^ R A Kunin (1989 August). "Snake oil". West J Med. 151(2): 208. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- Erasmus, Udo. Fats that heal: Fats that Kill. 1993, ISBN 0-920470-38-6
- Kunin, R.A. "Snake oil." West J Med. 1989 Aug;151(2):208.
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
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