Distinctly Montana Magazine

H E A L T H Y, W E L L & F I T S P E C I A L S E C T I O N 69 C AN ANYONE HEAR THE OLD TALES OF COWBOYS AND FRONTIERSMEN AND NOT WANT TO LIGHT OUT FOR THE TERRITORIES? All of those wide-open spaces and the lure of adventure speak to our very souls as Americans, and we yearn to join them, there, in the old west of our collective memory. But the more we look at the gritty truth of Montana's pioneering days, the more we might realize we're prob- ably happy right when we are. Because if there's one area in particular where our present knowledge outshines that of the 19th century, it's medicine. Woe unto to those who got sick on the early frontier! In 1804, as the Corps of Discovery set out into one of the larg- est uncharted territories ever to grace a map, they did so with only a very dim view of medical science. The principal medi- cine they brought was "Rush's Pills," a treatment concocted by a mentor to Lewis and Clark named Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Surgeon General of the Continental Army. Their inventor's accomplishments aside, "Rush Pills" were frighteningly large pills known to the Corps as "Thunder-clappers," owing to their tendency to induce violent and almost-immediate diarrhea. The "Thunder-clappers" may repre- sent Montana's first panacea or so-called cure-all, a first step on the journey to something that would become synonymous with the Old West: snake- oil. And one can't mention snake oil without conjuring images of the slick, charis- matic purveyors of all man- ner of dubious remedies claiming to cure anything that ailed you even if the cure was ultimately death. These and other so-called "patent medicines" thrived during the frontier era. Part of the reason is that the tent shows, presided over by color- ful and theatric charlatans, were as much entertainment as medi- cine. Just as today ads for pharmaceu- ticals are expensive and handsomely produced, airing during the most popu- lar programs and times, the late 19th century Medicine Show was carefully designed to be as diverting and amus- ing as possible. Frequently, music was sung or played, a minstrel show might per- form, and there might even be one or two Native Americans if the purveyor claimed the formula to be an Indian secret. Sometimes, as depicted in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, there was a plant in the crowd who was all too will- ing to attest to the miraculous proper- ties of the brew. Very often, there was a more cruel spectacle as well: snake-handlers would carry real rattlers, hold them up to the crowd, and slice them open lengthwise, dropping them into a boiling cauldron. The snake-oil pur- veyor would then gather the scum that boiled up to the top and deposit it into a bottle: this was rarely how the actual product was made, but the audience didn't need to know that. And yet, despite the con- tinuing association of the phrase with lies and what we might today call "fake news," the or- igins of snake oil go back to a surprising and legitimate source. Chinese laborers applied a derivation of the Chinese water snake to their inflamed and sore joints after a day of hard work and claimed that it produced immediate and effective relief. Gradually, a few Anglo workers were let in on the secret. Before long, word of the mirac- ulous snake oil cure spread, and demand for the product skyrock- eted. A study performed in the 1980s showed that this original form of snake oil was rich in both omega-3 fatty acids and eicosapentaenoic C O C A I N E , C A M P H O R & S N A K E OI L PA N A C E A S O F T H E O L D W E S T . by JOSEPH SHELTON

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