Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Snake Oil

  • Snake oil and snake oil salesmen

    Jayant Radhakrishnan Chicago, Illinois, United States According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “snake oil” is a noun that refers to “any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without regard to their medical worth or properties.” They also call it “poppycock, bunkum.”1 “Snake oil salesman” originated as a pejorative…