Snake Oil, Rituals, and Why We’re Wrong To Burn It All Down

How to benefit from old knowledge without making old mistakes. The term “snake oil salesman” is often used to describe individuals who engage in deceptive marketing practices. Wild west characters like Clark Stanley advertised their snake oil as a wondrous cure-all remedy. But in 1916, the U.S. government’s Bureau of Chemistry tested the liniment, found it to be dramatically overpriced and of limited value, and Stanley was fined $20. Yet that’s not the end of the story. You Probably Use Snake Oil Snake oil wasn’t entirely purposeless. While it’s true that it didn’t match the claims on the bottle, certain ingredients, such as capsaicin and camphor, proved valuable when used for valid purposes. Capsaicin, derived from chili peppers, is now used in skin-applied pain relief products to relieve muscular and joint pain. It’s an FDA-approved therapeutic treatment. Camphor is also commonly used as a counter-irritant, helping relieve itching from insect bites. It’s also the go-to ingredient for