Seneca Oil

[Victor Steinbok]

Someone had revised the Wiki article on Snake Oil to include an
explanation taken from a 1997 medical glossary that claims that the name
was derived through corruption of the name "Seneca Oil", which was a
common remedy, rather than from an actual oily extract of the Chinese
water snake.

Although I find references to Seneca Oil and Seneka Oil going back to
1820 (and suggesting that it goes back further [ http://goo.gl/Qj4aS ],
OED has it from 1795), I see no evidence that "snake oil" is a
corruption of "Seneca Oil". OED lists "snake oil" from 1927 and
restricts it only to the reference to quackery, although further
antedating of both the term for quack treatment and for actual snake oil
have been posted here.

Seneca Oil was indeed, at one point, a medicinal product sold in Eastern
US. However, it was not the only bottle-petroleum product sold as a
cure-all remedy. Other products included "American Medicinal Oil" (KY)
and "Kier's Petroleum or Rock Oil" (PA) [ http://goo.gl/K2JIu ]. The
same 1910 source claims that the first reference to medicinal oil
springing from the ground is from 1750 and the first mention that
connects Seneca Indians to its use in rituals is from 1755 (but,
apparently, neither is in English). The first US-based petroleum
extraction company was formed in 1853 as the Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company and renamed Seneca Oil Company four years later.

Later literature (1890s-1915) suggests that Seneca Indians used the oil
for medicinal purposes, although the earlier references mostly mention
the ritual connection--the oil was lit at Seneca "religious" ceremonies.
[ http://goo.gl/zbSvQ ] Use for medicinal purposes is attributable to
the settlers, not the natives [ http://goo.gl/AIcrx ]. In fact, the NED
mentions Seneca Oil, including specifically it being sold for medicinal
purposes. The OED has lost this particular part of the description, but
the 1910 Kipling quotations is suggestive.

> 1910 R. Kipling /Rewards & Fairies/ 161   He took orders for that
> famous Seneca Oil which he had the secret of from Red Jacket's Indians.

The use of Seneca Oil and its similarly composed competitors
commercially appears to fall into the early 1830s, with mineral
extraction for the purposes of refinement and burning starting in full
only in the mid-1850s. However, "Snake Oil" remedies became known a bit
later--perhaps in the 1870s, certainly in the 1880s. The quack-remedy
references originally date from the end of WWI, following the
denouncement of the Snake Oil as a remedy from a "scientific"
perspective. The timeline certainly fits, so this claim that "Snake Oil"
was merely a corruption (perhaps deliberate) of "Seneca Oil" is not
implausible on those grounds. However, early chemical analysis (1916, I
believe) of Snake Oil remedies revealed animal fats being dominant in
the concoction ("probably beef fat", with additions of "capsicum",
"camphor and turpentine"). It would be interesting if someone could come
up with a determinative citation that would prove or disprove the
connection.

There is clear evidence that Seneca Oil was indeed used as a component
in production of pharmaceuticals in the 1830s [ http://goo.gl/Ariz0 ].
Use as an ointment is recorded at least from 1842 [ http://goo.gl/9Q8wT ].

Thomas Ashe mentions Seneca Oil in his 1806 correspondence published as
Travels in America in 1808 [ http://goo.gl/owkSb ].

Robert Munro claimed in his 1804 description of the Genesee County that
the substance was given the name "Seneca Oil" by "the Indians", but that
seems silly (a later publication claims that the Seneca word for the
substance was "aunus") [ http://goo.gl/qDJIL ] The 1805 American
Encyclopedia compares it to "Barbados tar" [ http://goo.gl/B85nG ].

But here's the problem. Chinese water snake was not the only source of
snake oil.

There is a reference to "rattle snake's oil or nerve ointment" as a
softener for corns in 1861 [ http://goo.gl/y3NyV ] and in 1835 [
http://goo.gl/lj97e ]. Similarly, a medical guide from 1837 points to
"black snake's oil or rattlesnake's oil" as a remedy for persistent
cough and "hoarseness". The most interesting one is from 1802.

http://goo.gl/xyFJh
Medical Repository and Review of American Publications on Medicine,
Surgery and Auxiliary Branches of Philosophy.  Volume 5 (3). 1802
An Account of Bilious Colics, as they appeared in several Towns in the
County of Cumberland, District of Maine, in the Months of May, June and
July, 1801; And of the surprising Relief obtained therein by Alkaline
Remedies. By Dr. Jeremiah Barker, of Portland. Singular Cures. p. 273.
> A youth, affected with this disease, was relieved by taking an ounce
> of rattle-snake's oil; and a hunter, molested with colic, cured
> himself by drinking half a pint of bear's grease.

  This is an interesting article because it describes early deliberate
use of alkaline compounds as antiacid remedies. But the mention of
rattlesnake oil makes it highly unlikely that the later "snake oil"
would have been a corruption of "Seneca Oil", unless, of course, this
was a deliberate attempt to confuse the customers by confounding the
two. From this evidence, I simply do not see a plausible argument for
this claim, as "rattlesnake['s] oil" use appears to continue into the
1870s, when "snake oil" becomes a more common term.

     VS-)

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