Snake oil
Snake Oil is also the title of a well-known essay by Richard Dawkins attacking alternative medicine.
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The term was originally used for a type of 19th century patent medicine sold in the U. S., and claimed to contain snake fat, supposedly an American Native remedy for various ailments. A classic example is Stanley's snake oil, produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King". His liniment, tested by the federal government in 1917, was found to contain mineral oil, 1% fatty oil (presumed to be beef fat), red pepper, turpentine and camphor.
In time, snake oil became a generic name for any medicine, 'patented' or not, typically marketed as a panacea or miraculous remedy, whose ingredients were usually secret, unidentified, or mis-characterized, and mostly inert or ineffective. At best, such ingredients as alcohol and stimulants, as well as the placebo effect, might provide some temporary relief for whatever the problem might have been. The term is usually derogatory as, in those cases for which effective remedies actually do exist, snake oil is form of quackery and can be damaging, up to and including, avoidable death. The title of Dawkins essay (noted above) is an example of this use.
The snake oil peddler was an historical and folkloric figure of the American Old West, often featured in Western movies: a travelling "doctor" with dubious credentials, selling some patent medicine — such as snake oil — with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence. Less scientifically, but perhaps even more effectively from an immediate sales viewpoint, 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. W. C. Fields hilariously (and probably not too inaccurately) portrayed a back-of-the-buckboard snake oil barker (complete with audience shill) on the American frontier in an episode of one of his movies.
The practice of selling dubious remedies for real (or imagined) aliments has hardly been limited to 19th century America. It is still quite common today, even in 'sophisticated' parts of the world. Only the marketing techniques have changed with the introduction of new methods of reaching potential victims (or as purveyors would perhaps prefer, 'purchasers' or 'customers').
History
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