FOR decades, the term “snake oil” has come to mean something worthless that has been promised to be a cure-all; it is a term synonymous with fake or fraudulent medicine that does not do as advertised.
Indeed, the term came about in the 19th Century and the first two decades of the 20th century because of products proclaimed to contain “snake oil” that when tested were found to contain nothing from a snake at all – what more their fats or other oils.
