Snake oil was not always just snake oil

That is, snake oil the literal oil extracted from snakes was not always snake oil the quack cure-all.

As I understand it, the story goes about like this:

Sea snake oil was used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat things like joint pain. The snake oil used had properties similar to fish oil (ie high levels of omega-3 fatty acids), and thus likely had some actual utility in treating minor joint pain and the like. Probably not as much as modern anti-inflammatories and the like, but certainly enough to justify it having a reputation as a treatment for such ailments.

Chinese railway laborers, who, as laborers often do, had achy joints and whatever from, you know, laboring all day, went looking for their familiar remedy. But, being laborers rather than doctors or pharmacists, and in any case not speaking great English (if any at all), they likely just knew to look for snake oil, rather than any particular *kind* of snake oil. And a certain number of quacks and charlatans (and probably at least a *few* honest but confused and ignorant pharmacists and the like) were happy to sell them snake oil, made from local rattlesnakes. Unlike sea snake oil, rattlesnake oil has no particular qualities that make it different from any other random fat when it comes to treating ailments.

Pretty soon, a number of more blatant charlatans were selling “snake oil” that did not even contain any actual snake, but was instead mineral oil or tallow or the like, with various random other stuff thrown in. Most of them were claiming it could treat anything under the sun, from sore throats to snake bites, not just joint aches. And they were selling it to anyone sufficiently ignorant to be shilled, not just the Chinese laborers.

And that’s how “snake oil” went from being a minor, but actually at least somewhat effective remedy to a byword for useless “cure all” quackery.