[scp3125]

This is a tangent, but snake oil was medicinally effective.

The colloquialism "snake oil salesman" comes from the old scam of confidence men selling a cheap, adulterated (and sometimes drugged) mineral oil as snake oil (based on the Chinese water snake from Chinese traditional medicine). People would pay a premium for what they thought was medicine, only to find out later that the confidence men bamboozled them and skipped town with their money.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil

[iudqnolq]

From your source:

> In 18th-century Europe, especially in the UK, viper oil had been commonly recommended for many afflictions, including the ones for which oil from the rattlesnake (pit viper), a type of viper native to America, was subsequently favored to treat rheumatism and skin diseases.[6] Though there are accounts of oil obtained from the fat of various vipers in the Western world, the claims of its effectiveness as a medicine have never been thoroughly examined, and its efficacy is unknown. (emphasis added)