Hamlin's Wizard Oil

Hamlin's Wizard Oil  was a liniment produced by John Austin Hamlin, a magician, and his brother Lysander B. Hamlin, promoted as as a pain remedy and general cure for a variety of ailments and afflictions. During its hey-day, it was one of the more successful patent medicines, thanks to their use of colourful advertising and travelling sales troupes that performed entertaining medicine shows in small towns and cities across the United States.

Composition
There are claims that Hamlin's Wizard Oil and Kickapoo Indian Oil are both based on "Flagg's Instant Relief", the concoction of Prof. E.H. Flagg. What-ever the truth may be, most recipes proposed for Hamlin's oil agree that the main constituent is alcohol, combined with oils of sassafras and clove, camphor, and often aqua ammonia and turpentine, potentially in addition to other tinctures.

Oleson's "Secret nostrums and systems of medicine" (1890), citing a Dr. Douglas, lists the basic formula for Hamlin's Wizard Oil as follows: "Alcohol (1 pt), gum camphor (1 oz), oil sassafras (&frac12; oz), tincture of myrrh (&frac12; oz), tincture of capsicum (&frac12; oz), and chlorofrom (&frac12; oz)."

Alternately, "Dr. Chase's New Receipt Book" (1889) gives his recipe for Hamlin's Wizard Oil as: "Spirits of camphor, &frac12; oz.; aqua ammonia, &frac14; oz.; oil of sassafras, &frac14; oz.; oil of cloves, 1 dr.; chloroform, 2 drs.; spirits of turpentine, 3 drs.; dilute alcohol, 3 drs."

Performance Books

 * "Humorous and sentimental songs: as sung throughout the United States by Hamlin's Wizard Oil Concert Troupes in their open air advertising concerts" (archive.org) &mdash; a collection of lyrics and lectures about the benefits of Hamlin's Wizard Oil