Pharmacy - The original Snake oil
by Mike Savad
Title
Pharmacy - The original Snake oil
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Ever wonder where the term Snake oil comes from?
It all started on 1879, when a cowboy of 11 years, named Clark Stanley studied under a Hopi medicine man in the Walpi, Arizona. Or that's what he said. From him, he learned the "secrets of Snake Oil". A medicine that can cure so many different kinds of ailments. With the help of a Boston druggist, he began to market the liniment at Western medicine shows.
By 1893, he demonstrated at the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago, using a number of rattlesnakes as a way to draw in attention. After that he went to create production facilities in Beverly, MA, and Providence, RI.
However it came to an end in 1916, as it went through the Food and Drug act (created in 1906). Where they analyzed it, and found out it was nothing more than mineral oil, capsaicin (from chili peppers), and turpentine. It was found useless, it had no value, and cured nothing. He was fined $20 (about $560 in 2019).
Ever since then the term Snake Oil, is now known as fake, and worthless relating to medicine. The funny thing is though, today's medicine pretty much uses the same ingredients. A pain cream will have capsaicin in it, often a petroleum product like mineral oil, and instead of turpentine, they would use menthol...
Uploaded
January 29th, 2019
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