For many centuries the Chinese used snake oil as a treatment for joint pain, arthritis and bursitis. They brought this folk remedy with them when they arrived in the US in the mid 1800's to build the Transcontinental Railroad. That was hard work you know. Aspirin, while having been invented, was not a readily available item at that time. When the Chinese workers offered the remedy to Westerners as a palliative it was likely perceived to be a "primitive" form of "quackery...
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