the new century, Catherine, the daughter of the orig- 

 inal Rev. Daffy, insisted that she as well as her cousin 

 Antliony had received the valuable formula. But it 

 was Anthony's line that was to prove the more per- 

 sistent. In 1743, one Susannah Daffy advertised the 

 "Original and Famous Elixir," asserting that she had 

 a brother Anthony who also knew the secret." This 

 Anthony died in 1750 and willed the formula to his 

 niece. But there were others outside the family who 

 long had been making and selling the medicine. I'or 

 example, the Bow Churchyard Warehouse advertised 

 Daffy's Elixir in the London Mercury during 1721. 

 Without hiding the fact that others were also com- 

 pounding this "safe and pleasant Cordial . . . \vell- 

 known throughout England, where it has been in 

 great Use these 50 Years," the advertisement con- 

 cluded: "Those who make tryal of That sold at this 

 [Bow Churchyard] \\'arehouse will never buy any- 

 where else." -° 



Although once lauded by a physician to King 

 Charles II, Daffy's Elixir was never patented. The 

 Elixir invented by Richard Stoughton was, in 1712. 

 the second compound medicine to be granted a patent 

 in England.^' Stoughton was an apothecary who had 

 a shop at the Sign of the Unicorn in Southwark, Sur- 

 rey. It was evidently competition, the constant bane 

 of the medicine proprietor's life, that drove him to seek 

 governmental protection. In his specifications he as- 

 .serted that he had been making his medical mixture 

 for over twenty years. Stoughton was less precise 

 about his formula; indeed, he gave none, but was 

 generous in indicating the remedy's name: "Stough- 

 ton's Elixir Magnum Stomachii, or the Great Cordial 

 Elixir, otherwise called the Stomatick Tincture or 

 Bitter Drops." In a handbill, the apothecary did lip 

 his hand to the extent of a.sserting that his Elixir con- 

 tained 22 ingredients, but added that nobody but 

 himself knew what they were. The dosage was gen- 

 erous, 50 to 60 drops "in a glass of Spring water, Beer, 

 Ale, Mum, Canary, White wine, with or without 

 sugar, and a dram of brandy as often as you please." 

 This, it was said, would cure any stomach ailment 

 whatever.'' 



" Ibid., September 7, 1743. 



"> London Sfncury, London, August 19-26, 1721. 



2' Richard Stoughton, '"Restorative cordial and medicine," 

 British patent 390, 1712. 



22 From a broadside, ca. 1750, advertising "Dr. Stoughton's 

 Elixir Magnum Stomachum," preserved in the American Anti- 

 quarian Society, Worcester, Mass. 



The inventor died in 1726. and his passing precipi- 

 tated a perfect fury of coni])eiiti\e advertising. As in 

 the case of Daffy's, there was a family feud. A son of 

 .Stotighton and the widow of another son argued 

 vituperously in print, each claiming sole possession of 

 Richard's complicated secret, and each terming the 

 other a scotmdrel. The daughter-in-law accused the 

 son of financial chicanery, and the son condemned the 

 daughter-in-law for having run through two hus- 

 bands and for desperately wanting a third. In the 

 midst of this running battle, a third party entered the 

 lists as maker of the Elixir. She was no .Stoughton — 

 though a widow — and her quaint claim for the pub- 

 lic's consideration lay in this, that her late husband 

 had infringed Stoughton's patent until restrained by 

 the Lord C^hancellor. 



These ten medicines — Stoughton's and Daffy's 

 Elixirs and the eight which the Philadelphia phar- 

 macists were later to select — were by no means 

 the only packaged remedies available to the 18th- 

 century Englishman who resorted to self-dosage for 

 his ills. Between 1711, when the first patent was 

 granted for a compound medicine, and 1776, some 

 75 items were patented in the medical field. ■' And, 

 along with Godfrey's C!ordial and Daffy's Elixir, 

 there were scores of other remedies for which no 

 patents had been given. A list of nostrums published 

 in The Gentleman s Magazine in 1748 totaled 202. and 

 it was admitiedly incomplete.''' The proprietor with 

 a patent might do his utmost to keep this badge of 

 go\crnmental saitction before the public, but the 

 distiitctioit was not great enough in such a crowded 

 field to make things clear. The casual buyer could 

 not keep track of which electuary had been granted 

 a patent and which lozenge had not. They were all 

 bottles and boxes upon the shelf. In use they .served 

 the same purpose. One term arose in common speech 

 to apply to both, and it was "patent medicine." 



English Patent Medicines Come to America 



When the first English packaged medicine, patented 

 or unpatented, came to the New World, cannot be 

 told. Some 17th-century prospective colonist, setting 

 forth to face the hazards of life in Jamestown or 

 Baltimore or Boston, must have packed a box of 

 Anderson's Scots Pills or a bottle of Daflv's Elixir 



•' British Patent Office, op. cil. (sec footnote 4). 



2* Poplicola, "Pharmacopoeia empiriea or the list of nos- 

 trums and empirics," The Ccnllrman^s .Magazine, 1748, vol. 

 18, pp. 346-350. 



162 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HLSTORV AND TECHNOLOGY 



