unched in behalf of another remedy, called Dalby's
Carminative. The inventor, J. Dalby, was a London apothecary, and his
unpatented concoction was designed to cure "Disorders of the Bowels."
One early advertisement[18] added details: "This Medicine, which is
founded on just Medical Principles, has been long established as a most
safe and effectual Remedy, generally affording immediate Relief in the
Wind, Cholocks [_sic_], Convulsions, Purgings, and all those fatal
Disorders in the Bowels of Infants, which carry off so great a number
under the age of 2 years. It is also equally efficacious in gouty Pains
in the Intestines, in Fluxes, and in the cholicky Complaints of grown
Persons, so usual at this Season of the Year." Dalby, like Steer,
failed long to survive the appearance of his medicine on the market.

[18] _Daily Advertiser_, London, January 4, 1781.

Such were the origins of the eight remedies which the Philadelphia
pharmacists were to take account of in 1824. Besides these eight, two
other patent medicines, both elixirs, were destined for roles of such
special interest that a brief look at their English background is
warranted.

One of them, Daffy's Elixir, was the invention of a clergyman, Rev.
Thomas Daffy soon after 1650. Daffy had his troubles during that
troubled century, losing a pastorate because he offended a powerful
Countess. When the rector first sought to minister unto men's bodies as
well as to their souls is not known. According to a pamphlet issued in
1673, after the Rev. Daffy had passed from the scene, the formula had
been "found out by the Providence of the Almighty." By this time a
London kinsman of the inventor, named Anthony Daffy, was vending the
remedy. The full name of the medicine, according to the pamphlet's
title, was "Elixir Salutis: The Choice Drink of Health, or
Health-Bringing Drink," and among the ailments for which it was
effective were gout, the stone, colic, "ptissick," scurvy, dropsy,
rickets, consumption, and "languishing and melancholly."

The Elixir Salutis proved immensely popular. It was too much to expect
that Anthony should hold the field uncontested; in the 1673 pamphlet
one false fabricator was called by name, and in 1680 Anthony advertised
to warn against "diverse Persons" who were not only counterfeiting the
medicine but spreading the malicious rumor that Anthony was dead. Early
in the new century, Catherine, the daughter of the original Rev. Daffy,
insisted