Snake oil! Man, I couldn't believe it. My two brothers, my sister and
I had an auction where we eliminated a bunch of stuff from my grand
parents attic, Sold off a lot of stuff, which I could have had just to
take home anyhow, but instead we listed them in the auction. So I
ended up buying back some of my own stuff! Oh well, hey whatever my
bid, between us four heirs I got 25% off! A bargain! ( I guess)

Anyhow we found a small bottle complete with cork stopper of "Rabbits
Foot Oil" then under neath it , was printed "formerly known as
rattlesnake oil" About half full with a good label. Probably only
held 4 ounces and was half full, but was marketable. Hey it brought
$45.00!

COOL!

Well, This was a very old bottle, probably in the late 18 or early
1900's

I'd never seen a bottle of "snake oil" before and so I thought I'd do
a bit of research on it.

Seems like when the Chinese started to come into the country to work
building the railroads, they brought their ancient remedies with them.
And for arthritis treatment they had a way of processing the fats from
the chinese sea snake, which un-beknownst to anyone could have done a
bit of good, because it had a concentration of what we now know as
Omaga-3 acids. So agents of fortune ran with the idea and started
gleaning oils from rattlers and other slithering creatures, which
lacked really any type of helth benefit, but hey, weatehr sea snake,
or siewinder, snake oil is snake oil.

Well, because of the gypsies, quacks and flim-flammers concoctions
that were supposed wonder cures for arthritis, bad eyesight, dropsey,
even hemmeroids..the stuff obviously didn't work, or caused more
damage to ones health. And because most people didn't put any faith in
the superstitious views of the chinese, Just about any home grown
remedies and medecations that didn't make sense to the typical
consumer was automatically branded as "Snake Oil" ...Still goes on
today, wether it's some elixer, or "Slick 50". If people doen't
understant it, its automatically branded as "snake oil."

And like myself, those who don't like snakes, or people who were leary
of "snake oil"; I'm assuming that's why the bottler changed the name
to "rabbits foot" brand oil, because it sounded a lot luckier. I'm
sure this bottle was close to 100 yrs old, and I really didn't think I
needed a swig, so away it went.

It may not work, but obviously, Snake Oil sells!