The Astonishing Legacy of the Original Snake Oil Salesman

Chicago, Illinois, 1893 – A Cowboy named Clark Stanley swaggers confidently onto the World’s Columbian Exposition stage. He announces, to the great interest of the crowd, that with the assistance of a Hopi medicine man he met in Arizona, he has developed a new oil liniment known to relieve all pains. With a flourish and triggering a gasp of terror from the crowd, he produces a live rattlesnake, which he drops into boiling water. The snake thrashes momentarily before going limp, sinking to the bottom of the tub as oil drips from its carcass, settling on the water’s surface. Skimming the oil from the top into a vial for all to see, he claims this is the source of his liniment’s healing abilities – Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil.

Stanley would go on to bottle and sell his “snake oil” elixir – which contained no snake oil but a mixture of mineral oil, cow fat, red pepper, and turpentine – across the country. After nearly 24 years of selling his product, the self-proclaimed “Rattlesnake King” was eventually exposed as a fraud. Stanley was fined about $20 (around $500 today) for violating the Food and Drug Act—an amount undoubtedly eclipsed by the fame and fortune he received from his outlandish claims. Thus was the term “snake oil salesman” born – a pejorative aimed at all who would sell “cures” claiming outlandish benefits without known efficacy.

Perhaps most interesting about Clark Stanley’s story is the kernel of truth that accompanies it. Snake oil has some analgesic properties. The Chinese water snake, which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, produces an oil effective for treating arthritis and joint aches and pains. Like many charlatans, though, Stanley’s product was more smoke and mirrors than substance. Rather than Chinese water snakes, Stanley opted to use one critter in abundant supply – the North American rattlesnake – to promote his miracle elixir. The one problem? Rattlesnake venom doesn’t contain the same compounds that provide the analgesic effect found with Chinese water snake venom. The “truth” of the matter, however, was secondary – Stanley’s snake oil became wildly popular, creating a playbook that modern-day “snake oil salesmen” follow to this day.

We don’t routinely host World Fairs or public expositions to tout the latest cures or innovations in the modern era. That ground has been ceded to the digital realm in 2024 – the world of Youtube, Facebook, Tiktok, or any social media network where slick editing and careful manipulation of the algorithm can cause misinformation to spread like wildfire. Like Clark Stanley, influencers often use the same strategy of a kernel of truth to generate interest. We probably know this better as clickbait. Headlines like “One NATURAL Cure for Diabetes your doctor DOESN’T want you to know about!” “Ancient Herb found to REVERSE heart disease” and “Supplements you NEED to reverse your brain fog” are the modern-day equivalent of Stanley’s famous 1893 exposition. If Stanley had a cellphone and an internet connection, he’d have a market of millions today – not just the hundreds who passed by his booth that fateful day in 1893.

The gravity of the problem of misinformation is obvious. So what can a modern-day physician do in the face of it? Perhaps we can draw a lesson from the downfall of the Rattlesnake King himself. Stanley’s Snake Oil empire came to an abrupt end in 1917. A newly-formed “poison squad” of the Department of Agriculture, who were tasked with the enforcement of the Food and Drug Act of 1906, seized and tested a shipment of the fake medicine. The poison squad, which was founded initially several years earlier by a physician, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, was able to prove the oil’s composition. They issued a damning government report that ruined the Rattlesnake King’s reputation and toppled his business. By the time of Stanley’s downfall, Dr. Wiley had retired from government service to advocate for consumer protections differently – as a contributor for a magazine called Good Housekeeping. He would go on to write on topics like improved infant and maternal care, purity in food label reporting, and against tobacco use – years before the US Surgeon General issued their famous report confirming the link between tobacco and cancer.

The obligation that physicians have to protecting patients does not end outside the exam room door. Rather than being reluctant to engage in public discourse, physicians must not shirk the responsibility of communication with patients in the public arena, whether online or elsewhere. The more high-quality, validated content the medical profession can create and promote, the better public health results will be, and the more trust will be restored in the profession. Perhaps physicians should all take a cue from Dr. Wiley’s literary career. By doing this, maybe we too can shut down and stomp out the snake oil salesmen that threaten patients today. Copyright © 2025 Brennan Kruszewski, MD

Dr. Kruszewski is a primary care physician and healthcare strategist committed to putting the human back in healthcare. On his blog, he shares practical insights and stories that bridge science, ethics, and everyday life—helping readers see how care can be both smarter and more humane.  Explore more at drbk.clinic.