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The Snake Oil of Snohomish

A century-old miracle cure for man and beast that promised to heal everything from rheumatism to ‘hollow horn’.

The story, cleaned up

A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.

The Mexican Mustang Liniment, a liniment that very naturally originated in Mexico, as nature provides in her laboratory such surprising medicine for the healing of her children. Its fame has been spreading far and near, and now it is reaching the habitable globe. The Mexican Mustang Liniment is a remedy for all external troubles of man and beast. To stock owners and farmers it is invaluable. A single bottle often saves a human life or the life of an animal. It cures the number of all ills—cuts, sores, galls, or stings, is good for hoof-all, hollow horn, grub, screw-worms, shoulders, mange, the bites and stings of poisonous reptiles and insects, and every such disease of cattle, breeding and stall-fed. It cures every external trouble of horses, such as lameness, scratches, sprains, stiffness, founder, poll-evil, ring-bone, etc. The Mexican Mustang Liniment is the quickest cure in the world for accidents occurring in the home. In the absence of a physician, such as burns, scalds, sprains, cuts, etc., and for rheumatism and stiffness engendered by exposure. Particularly valuable to families. It is the cheapest medicine in the world, for it penetrates through the skin to the bone, and a single application is generally sufficient to cure.

“A single bottle often saves a human life or the life of an animal.”

— Printed in The Northern Star (Snohomish City, W.T. [Wash.]) 1876-1879, 1879
Then · 1879147 years apartNow · 2026

Long before the modern wellness industry or viral social media health hacks, frontier newspapers were flooded with 'miracle' cure-alls like Mexican Mustang Liniment. While we have traded 'hollow horn' for trendy supplements, the human desire for a quick, universal fix for life's physical aches remains as persistent and profitable as ever.

The original page

The Northern Star (Snohomish City, W.T. [Wash.]) 1876-1879, 1879-03-08. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
The Northern Star (Snohomish City, W.T. [Wash.]) 1876-1879, MAR 8, 1879, Page 7
Rights
Public domain
Place
48.00747, -121.73049 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗