Snake oil

Hugo hugovk at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jan 27 18:22:49 UTC 2014


> An excellent find. Very many thanks. But, as so often, this raises a
> further question: what is "oil of drums"?

Perhaps oil of drum fish. From the OED (whose first quote is
Philosophical Transactions of 1676):

 IV. 11. More fully drum-fish n. A name of various American sciænoid
fishes which have the power of making a drumming noise. Among these
are the ‘salt-water drum’ (Pogonias chromis) found on the Atlantic
coast; the ‘fresh-water drum’ (Haplodinotus grunniens) of the
Mississippi, and lakes of the St. Lawrence; the ‘branded drum’,
‘organ-fish’, ‘red-fish’, ‘sea-boss’ (Sciæna ocellata) of the Gulf
States.

Hugo

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