Strange but True: Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something


	Strange but True: Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something

wildcat

11-5-2007 3:39 AM

614 views

tags:

snake oil, medicine, health, heart disease, depression, cure

2 Comments |

Add a Comment

11-5-2007 9:19 AM

constantskeptic

I am skeptical of this

11-8-2007 6:05 PM

syncopath

dear skeptic don`t be so constant ..

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/6727598c-3b72-40d4-838f-e478fbde22de/2D6A6571-B75A-46F4-832A-57CBBEA85197/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9" href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9" style="font-size: 11px;">www.sciam.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9"><B>Snake oil really <I>is</I> a cure for what ails you, if that happens to be arthritis, heart disease or maybe even depression</B></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9"><P>Throughout the 19th century salesmen traveled the U.S. peddling solutions to all medical ills. As depicted in numerous Westerns and in Mark Twain's <EM>Huckleberry Finn,</EM> the "doctor" was aided by a shill in the crowd who would, at the appropriate moment, call out that this medicament, ointment or tincture had solved his woes. Once the unsuspecting public had purchased the con artists' wares, both would quickly depart before the townspeople discovered the worthlessness of the claims.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.sciam.com/img/FC9AB031-3330-4A88-A421-81C050A494B8" alt="Weird Science Image: chinese-water-snakes" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9"><table background="undefined" bgcolor=""><tr><TD align="left" class="captionText"><B>SNAKE OIL:</B> 
Chinese water snakes have lots of omega 3 fatty acids in their oil, meaning such snake oil might actually cure aches and pains. 
</TD></tr></table></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=F7B4BAF7-E7F2-99DF-3870FFECA70C38C9">
For centuries snake oil has been a folk remedy in Chinese medicine, used primarily to treat joint pain such as arthritis and bursitis</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/2D6A6571-B75A-46F4-832A-57CBBEA85197/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>