Editing Snake oil (section)

==From cure-all to quackery==
[[File:SnakeOilDecision.jpg|thumb|A report of the 1917 decision of the United States District Court for [[Rhode Island]], fining Clark Stanley $20 for "misbranding" its "Clark Stanley Snake Oil Liniment".]]

[[Clark Stanley]]'s Snake Oil Liniment&nbsp;– produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King"&nbsp;– was tested by the United States government's [[Bureau of Chemistry]], the precursor to the [[Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA) in 1916.<ref name="Chemistry 1917"/> It was found to contain: mineral oil, 1% fatty oil (assumed to be [[tallow]]), [[capsaicin]] from [[chili pepper]]s, [[turpentine]], and [[camphor]].<ref name="snakeoil" />

In 1916, subsequent to the passage of the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]] in 1906, Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment was examined by the Bureau of Chemistry, and found to be drastically [[overpriced]] and of limited value. As a result, Stanley faced [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] prosecution for peddling mineral oil in a fraudulent manner as snake oil. In his 1916 [[Civil law (common law)|civil]] hearing instigated by federal [[prosecutor]]s in the [[United States district court|U.S. District Court]] for Rhode Island, Stanley [[Pleading|pleaded]] ''[[nolo contendere]]'' (no contest) to the allegations against him, giving no [[Admission (law)|admission]] of [[Guilt (law)|guilt]].<ref name="Chemistry 1917"/> His plea was accepted, and as a result, he was fined $20<ref name="Chemistry 1917"/> (about ${{Inflation|US|20|1916|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{Inflation/fn|US}}

The term ''snake oil'' has since been established in popular culture as a reference to any worthless concoction sold as medicine, and has been extended to describe a wide-ranging degree of fraudulent goods, services, ideas, and activities such as worthless rhetoric in politics. By further extension, a '''snake oil salesman''' is commonly used in English to describe a [[Quackery|quack]], [[huckster]], or [[charlatan]].