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The History of “Snake Oil” and “Snake Oil Salesmen”

  • Writer: FibonacciMD
    FibonacciMD
  • Aug 4
  • 3 min read

Once a remedy, snake oil became shorthand for fraud. Explore the surprising story behind the term and the salesman who made it infamous.


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By Stuart M. Caplen, MD 


“Snake oil” and “snake oil salesmen” are terms now used for fake cures and the con men who sell them.  Just how did snake oil become linked to grifters and fakery?  


The Original Snake Oil 

In the 1800s, hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers entered the U.S., many of whom worked on building the transcontinental railroad. These immigrants brought various medicines with them, including omega-3-rich oil from the Chinese water snake (Laticauda semifasciata or black-banded sea krait), which had been used for centuries as an anti-inflammatory agent to treat arthritis, bursitis, and other joint pains.  Chinese workers would rub the oil on sore joints after a day’s work.  Americans working alongside them asked to try it, and found it helpful.


The Rise of American Snake Oil

As the popularity of snake oil rose, American businessmen wanted to cash in on it.  Since they did not have access to Chinese water snakes, they used, or purported to use, rattlesnake oil in various products.  Chinese water snakes contain much more of the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), than American rattlesnakes do.  This theoretically might have made rattlesnake oil a much less effective anti-inflammatory agent than Chinese water snake oil.  


In the latter half of the 19th century, a whole industry arose selling “patent medicines,” which were frequently advertised in the back pages of newspapers. These tonics and salves claimed to cure all sorts of ailments.

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Clark Stanley, “The Rattlesnake King”

One of the most prominent snake oil salesmen was Clark Stanley, better known as “The Rattlesnake King”.  According to a pamphlet he wrote, Stanley was a cowboy in the 1870s who learned the secret of snake oil from the Hopi Indians.  At the 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago, Stanley performed an unusual ritual to sell Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment.  He would pull a snake out of a bag, slit it open, throw it in boiling water, then skim the fat that rose to the top, and claim it was part of his snake oil liniment. 

In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, and the government started cracking down on patent medicines.  In 1916, based on a complaint, the Bureau of Chemistry analyzed Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment and reported it was a mixture of mineral oil, 1% beef fat, capsicum, and traces of camphor and turpentine.  He was found guilty in court of fraudulently claiming his liniment was “a remedy for all pain and lameness, for rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, sprains, bunions, sore throat, for bites of animals and reptiles, for all pains and aches in flesh, muscles and joints, as a relief for tic douloureux (facial pain), and as a cure for partial paralysis of the arms and lower limbs, and effective to reduce large joints to their natural size.”  Stanley entered a plea of nolo contendere (no contest) and was fined $20 (about $590 today).


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The Term “Snake Oil” Becomes an American Idiom

After that trial, the terms “snake oil” and “snake oil salesmen” started commonly being used for medicines that had no value and to describe the charlatans who sold those products to unsuspecting customers.


References

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