Patent Medicine

Patent Medicine

Patent medicines are those sold with heavy promotion as medical cures, but which do not work as promoted. "Patent medicine" is a misnomer since in most cases, although products might be trademarked, they are not patented (the patent process requires proof that something new has been discovered). In ancient times, patent medicine was sometimes called nostrum remedium ("our remedy" in Latin).

The promotion of patent medicines was one of the first major products highlighted by the advertising industry, and many advertising and sales techniques were pioneered by patent medicine promoters. Patent medicine advertising often promoted the advantages of exotic ingredients, even though their actual effects came from more prosaic drugs. One group of patent medicines — liniments that allegedly contained snake oil, supposedly a panacea — made snake oil salesman a lasting synonym for a charlatan.

Read more about Patent Medicine:  Patent Medicines and Advertising, The End of The Patent Medicine Era, Surviving Consumer Products From The Patent Medicine Era

Famous quotes containing the words patent and/or medicine:

    There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Hygiene is the corruption of medicine by morality. It is impossible to find a hygienest who does not debase his theory of the healthful with a theory of the virtuous.... The true aim of medicine is not to make men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)