Snake Oil was literally mineral oil, beef fat, and spices mislabeled as a cure

Evidence

Clark Stanley, the Rattlesnake King, continued with Snake Oil for a time but eventually fell afoul of the new laws. A Rhode Island prosecutor, acting on behalf of the Bureau of Chemistry, indicted him for violating the Food and Drugs Act in 1916. The bureau tested a sample of Snake Oil and found it to contain “a light mineral oil (petroleum product) mixed with about 1 percent fatty oil (probably beef fat) capsicum, and possibly a trace of camphor and turpentine.” As the government charged, Snake Oil was “falsely and fraudulently…represented as a remedy for all pains and lameness…when, in truth and in fact, it was not.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 119

Categorization

• CANDY: The actual lab test contents of the famous Snake Oil — petroleum jelly and beef fat — is a perfect dinner-party fact.
• XREF: connects to: Snake oil was originally a genuine Chinese anti-inflammatory remedy — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1170