Category:
Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil
Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil
Stramonium Cigarettes: Smoking to Relieve Asthma
Long professional article on their history here.The relevant info at Wikipedia.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 01, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Nature, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Diseases
Calcreose
No longer will tuberculosis sufferers have to lick telephone poles for the creosote and hang out at lime quarries inhaling the dust, for now Calcreose supplies all of those vital ingredients which you can stomach. Apparently good for a hundred ailments.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 03, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Twentieth Century
Skin whitening by intestine shortening
Back in the 1970s, some women in Japan reportedly tried to whiten their skin by having surgery to remove a section of their intestines:surgeons have recently discovered a dramatic way to make Japanese females less yellow and thereby satisfy their obsession for the skin, as well as the features, of an Audrey Hepburn.
Up to 50 inches of the large intestine have to be removed according to Dr. Tadao Yagi, director of a private hospital that specializes in the operation.
Up to 50 inches of the large intestine have to be removed according to Dr. Tadao Yagi, director of a private hospital that specializes in the operation.
I can't imagine why this would work. Perhaps the women grew paler because of malnutrition?
San Francisco Examiner - Mar 26, 1975
I believe these may be photos of the operation being performed, from an article by Tadao Yagi in the Japanese Journal of Medical Instrumentation.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 18, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Surgery, 1970s
Seelye’s Wasa Tusa
Patent medicine earned Dr. A. B. Seelye a fortune that allowed him to build a fine mansion that is open to the public today.
What was in his fabled Wasa Tusa?
A.B. Seelye made his fortune in patent medicines with the A.B. Seelye Medical Company. At one time he had over 500 salesmen traveling through 14 states. The Wasa Tusa they sold contained 65 percent “non-beverage alcohol, chloroform and sulphuric ether.”
Source of quote.
You can read his digitized ALMANAC, HEALTH GUIDE AND COOKBOOK here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 07, 2021 -
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Category: Domestic, Money, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
Polyform, Edison’s Topical Anesthetic
American inventor and businessman Thomas Alva Edison is legendary for his contributions to such technologies as the lightbulb, the telephone, the phonograph, and motion pictures, among many others.1In his lifetime, Edison obtained 1,093 US patents and some 1,239 patents in other countries. Little known among these efforts was his “improved anesthetic compound.”
In the summer of 1882, George F. Shrady (Founder and Editor, Medical Record 1866–1904) (1837–1907), reported that Thomas Edison invented a new anesthetic made of chloroform, ether, alcohol, and camphor and had applied for British and German patents.2The witty but misinformed editor added, “Edison may wish to use it on his stockholders until electric light was in successful operation.”
In fact, the “anesthetic” actually was an analgesic liniment that Edison had prepared in early 1878. He named it Polyform and advertised it for “neurologic pain.” Polyform was a mixture of chloroform, ether, camphor gum, alcohol, chloral hydrate, morphine, and oils of peppermint and clove. Edison believed that his compound’s various analgesics would potentiate each other and that the mixture would attack pain in a “shotgun manner.”3
More info here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 24, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Celebrities, Inventions, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century
Rengo fruit for obesity
A "remedy for obesity" marketed circa 1906. It supposedly was made from the "Rengo fruit". In Nostrums and Quackery (1912) the American Medical Association offered this analysis:Rengo used to be known as "Rengo Fruit" and the claim was made that its active constituents were derived from a luscious tropical fruit which grows in clusters similar to grapes...
Rengo has been analyzed and, according to Dr. Kebler's analysis, contains: Thyroid gland, Poke root, Cascara, Cassia fistula.
That the prolonged administration of thyroid gland will sometimes bring about a marked reduction in weight is true but its use even under skilled medical supervision is fraught with danger. It is little less than criminal that ignorant quacks of Kellogg's type should be permitted to distribute indiscriminately drugs that have the potency for harm that is possessed by the thyroid preparations.
Rengo has been analyzed and, according to Dr. Kebler's analysis, contains: Thyroid gland, Poke root, Cascara, Cassia fistula.
That the prolonged administration of thyroid gland will sometimes bring about a marked reduction in weight is true but its use even under skilled medical supervision is fraught with danger. It is little less than criminal that ignorant quacks of Kellogg's type should be permitted to distribute indiscriminately drugs that have the potency for harm that is possessed by the thyroid preparations.
source: flickr
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 10, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Fruit, 1900s
Vapo Path
Creosote and naphthalene! My favorite medicines!
Posted By: Paul - Fri May 21, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1930s, 1940s
The Xervac Anti-Baldness Device
Read all about it here.
And here, source of the photo below.
Posted By: Paul - Tue May 11, 2021 -
Comments (8)
Category: Technology, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1930s, Hair and Hairstyling
The Stimulator
The Stimulator, which sold for $79, promised to cure headaches, allergies, swollen joints, backaches, and more. It did this by delivering low-voltage electrical shocks to whatever body part was hurting.However, the FDA shut down its manufacturer in 1997 noting that the device was actually a modified gas-grill igniter which cost about $2 to make.
More info: Museum of Quackery
Greenville News - Jan 21, 1997
Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 23, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1990s
Hair Popping
Hair popping was developed as a claimed cure for baldness around the 1950s. It involved pulling on the scalp until it made a popping sound. And yes, it was apparently quite painful.Some details from Baldness: A Social History by Kerry Segrave.
Trained dietician and cosmetologist Rita Hartinger was the foremost practitioner of the "hair popping" technique of hair preservation and regrowth; she was working out of New York City in 1968. Eight years earlier she had learned the trade from its originator, hairdresser Marsha Lewis, since retired. Hartinger called herself a "professional hair popper," believing her method of scalp stimulation helped her customers keep whatever hair they had and perhaps sprout a new crop. "I make the hairs healthy.... When you lift up the scalp from the bone structure by popping, it stimulates circulation and nourishes the tissue. Then the hair is strengthened, and it is less likely to fall out," she said. A journalist who watched Rita in action reported that each tug on the scalp did indeed produce a "pop," and he described the sound further by writing it was "as if a kernel of popcorn had exploded on his head."
Hair popping, as a cure for baldness, fell out of fashion. But recently it's re-emerged as a fad on TikTok. Though it's now being called 'scalp popping'.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 21, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Hair and Hairstyling
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |