Elixir Salutis : 



THE 



CHOISE DRINK OF HEALTH, 



OR, 

 BEINC 



A Famous Cordial Drink, found oat 



by ihc Providence of the Almighty, and Ex» 

 perienced a Moft Fxccllenc Prefervative of 

 Man-kind, 



A SECRET 



Far beyond anyMedicament yet known. 



And is t'ound To agreeable to Nature, Tliat 

 it ^(fc&s all its Operations, as Nature would 

 Have it, aod as a Vertual Expedieor propoTed by 

 b<r, for reducing aU her Extieams nnto an equal 

 Tentpei s the Came being fitted onto ali Jeest Sexes^ 

 CompUxiees And CMjltt4aKiu, and highly toftifyiiig 

 Harare agaiall any htoxioas hoffloar, invadiagor 

 offending the ifoHt Parti : 



N<»»r l»uW.(b.<r bv a«y bai by M< 

 ANTHONT DAFFTy Stadtvt i» fh^fffk. 



LONDON, 

 ?t\eui (wli ABowsoet for ite Ambow by T. JiObcan^ i«7|. 



Figure 2. — Anthony Daffy Extolled the Virtues 

 OF Hls Elixir Salutis in this pamphlet, published 

 in London in 1673. {Courtesy, British Museum.) 



witz) Godfrey in Southampton Street, London. - 

 According to a handbill issued during the late 17th 

 century, Ambroise Godfrey prepared "Good Cordials 

 as Royal English Drops." 



With respect to his rivals, the 18th-century Hert- 

 fordshire vendor of the Cordial warned in the ]Veekly 

 Journal (London), December 23, 1721: "I do advise 

 all Persons, for their own Safety, not to meddle with 

 the said Cordial prepared by illiterate and ignorant 

 Persons, as Bakers, Malsters, [sic] and Goldsmiths, 



2 "How the patent medicine industry came into its own," 

 American Druggist, October 1933, vol. 88, pp. 84-87, 232, 234, 

 236, 238. 



that shall pretend to make it, it being beyond 

 their reach; so that by their Covclousness and 

 Pretensions, many Men, Women, and espe- 

 cially Infants, may fall as \'ictims, whose 

 Slain may exceed Herod's Cruel t\ . . . . " 



In 1726 King George I granted a patent for 

 the making and selling of Dr. Bateman's 

 Pectoral Drops. The patent was given not to 

 a doctcjr. hut to a business man named Benja- 

 min Okell. In the words of the patent,^ Okcll 

 is lauded for having "found out and brought 

 to Perfection, a new Chymicall Preparacion 

 and Medicine . . . , working chiefly by 

 Moderate Sweat and Urine, exceeding all 

 other Medicines yet found out for the Rheuma- 

 tism, which is highly u.seful under the Afflic- 

 tions of the Stone, Gravell, Pains, Agues, and 

 Hysterias . . . ." What the chemicals con- 

 stituting his remedy were, the patentee did 

 not vouchsafe to reveal. 



The practice of patenting had begun in 

 royal prerogative. Long accustomed to grant- 

 ing monopoly privileges for the development 

 of new industries, the discovery of new lands, 

 and the enrichment of court favorites, \arious 

 monarchs in 17th-century Europe had given 

 letters patent to proprietors of medical reme- 

 dies which had gained popular acclaim. In 

 France and the German States, this practice 

 continued well through the 18th century. In 

 England, where representative go\ernment 

 had progressed at the expense of the personal 

 prerogative of the sovereign. Parliament passed 

 a law in 1624 aimed at curbing arbitrary 

 actions like those of James I and Clharlcs I. 

 The statute declared all monopolies void 

 except those extended to the first inventor of a 

 new process of manufacture. To such pioneers the 

 king could grant his letters patent bestowing monopoly 

 privileges for a period of 14 years. That the machinery 

 set up by lliis law did not completely curb the inde- 

 pendence of English sovereigns in the medical realm 

 is indicated l)y the favor extended Dr. Weir, who suc- 

 cessfully sought from James II a privileged position 

 for Anderson's Scots Pills. This kingly grant is not 

 included in the regular list, and the Glorious Revo- 

 lution of 1688 brought an end to such an exercise of 



3 Benjamin Okell, "Pectoral drops for rheumatism, gravel, 

 etc.," British patent 483, March 31, 1726. 



158 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



