Daffy's Elixir
Encyclopedia
Daffy's Elixir is a name that has been used by several patent medicines over the years. It was originally designed for diseases of the stomach, but was later marketed as a universal cure. It remained a popular remedy in Britain
and later the United States of America throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
, Leicester
, in 1647. He named it elixir salutis (lit. elixir of health) and promoted as a generic cure-all
.
, cochineal
, elecampane
, fennel seed, jalap
, manna
, parsley seed, raisin
, rhubarb
, saffron
, senna and spanish liquorice. Chemical analysis has shown this to be a laxative
made mostly from alcohol. Other recipes include Guiuacum
wood chips, caraway
, Salt of Tartar
, and scammony
.
fits
; Consumption
and Bad Digestives
; Agues
; Piles
; Surfeits; Fits of the Mother and Vapours
from the Spleen
; Green Sickness
; Children's Distempers, whether the Worms
, Rickets
, Stones
, Convulsions, Gripes
, King's Evil
, Joint Evil or any other disorder proceeding from Wind
or Crudities; Gout
and Rheumatism
; Stone or Gravel
in the Kidnies; Cholic and Griping of the Bowels
; the Phthisic
(both as cure and preventative provided always that the patient be moderate in drinking, have a care to prevent taking cold and keep a good diet; Dropsy
and Scurvy
. The frequent use of the medicine to treat Colic, gripes or fret in horse
s was deplored in early veterinary
manuals.
in Nottingham
. Anthony Daffy moved to London in the 1690s and began to exploit the product issuing pamphlets such as Directions for taking elixir salutis or, the famous purging cordial, known by the name of Daffy's elixir salutis [London], [1690?]. His widow Elleanor Daffy continued from about 1693 and (their daughter?) Katharine from about 1707. During the early 18th century the product was advertised widely in the emerging national and local newspaper
s. The success attracted several counterfeit copies, using inferior alcohol rather than brandy.
The medicine was later produced by William and Cluer Dicey & Co. of Bow Church yard c.1775 who claimed the sole rights of manufacture of the True Daffy's Elixir, although the recipe was not subject to any patent. Proprietorship was also then claimed by Peter Swinton of Salisbury Court and his son Anthony Daffy Swinton who may have been descended from the inventor. Dicey and Co. and their successors marketed it in the United States of America.
It then passed to Dicey and Sutton, and later to Messrs W. Sutton & Co. of Enfield
Middlesex
who continuing to market it throughout the nineteenth century. The use of Daffy's elixir is referred to in Anthony Trollope
's novel Barchester Towers
, 1857.
Daffy’s original and famous elixir salutis: the choice drink of health: or, health-bringing drink. Being a famous cordial drink, found out by the providence of the Almighty, and (for above twenty years) experienced by himself, and divers persons (whose names are at most of their desires here inserted) a most excellent preservative of man-kind. A secret far beyond any medicament yet known, and is found so agreeable to nature, that it effects all its operations, as nature would have it, and as a virtual expedient proposed by her, for reducing all her extreams unto an equal temper; the same being fitted unto all ages, sexes, complexions, and constitutions, and highly fortifying nature against any noxious humour, invading or offending the noble parts. Never published by any but by Anthony Daffy, student in physick, and since continued by his widow Elleanor Daffy, London : printed with allowance, for the author, by Tho. Milbourn dwelling in Jewen-Street, 1693.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and later the United States of America throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Origins
Daffy's Elixir was one of the most popular and frequently advertised patent medicines in Britain during the 18th century. It is reputed to have been invented by clergyman Thomas Daffy rector of RedmileRedmile
Redmile is a village and civil parish in the Melton district of Leicestershire, England, about north of Melton Mowbray and west of Grantham, in the Vale of Belvoir....
, Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, in 1647. He named it elixir salutis (lit. elixir of health) and promoted as a generic cure-all
Cure-All
Cure-All was a half bred racehorse by Physician out of an unknown dam who won the 1845 Grand National Steeplechase when an unconsidered outsider....
.
Ingredients
An early recipe for "True Daffy" from 1700 lists the following ingredients: aniseed, brandyBrandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
, cochineal
Cochineal
The cochineal is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colour dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico, this insect lives on cacti from the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and...
, elecampane
Elecampane
Elecampane, also called Horse-heal or Marchalan , is a perennial composite plant common in many parts of Great Britain, and ranges throughout central and Southern Europe, and in Asia as far eastwards as the Himalayas....
, fennel seed, jalap
Jalap
Jalap is a cathartic drug consisting of the tuberous roots of Ipomoea purga, a convolvulaceous plant growing on the eastern declivities of the Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico at an elevation of 5000 to 8000 ft...
, manna
Manna
Manna or Manna wa Salwa , sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of an edible substance that God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert according to the Bible.It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey....
, parsley seed, raisin
Raisin
Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing...
, rhubarb
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a group of plants that belong to the genus Rheum in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennial plants growing from short, thick rhizomes. They have large leaves that are somewhat triangular-shaped with long fleshy petioles...
, saffron
Saffron
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...
, senna and spanish liquorice. Chemical analysis has shown this to be a laxative
Laxative
Laxatives are foods, compounds, or drugs taken to induce bowel movements or to loosen the stool, most often taken to treat constipation. Certain stimulant, lubricant, and saline laxatives are used to evacuate the colon for rectal and/or bowel examinations, and may be supplemented by enemas under...
made mostly from alcohol. Other recipes include Guiuacum
Guaiacum
Guaiacum, sometimes spelled Guajacum, is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family Zygophyllaceae. It contains five species of slow-growing shrubs and trees, reaching a height of approximately but are usually less than half of that...
wood chips, caraway
Caraway
Caraway also known as meridian fennel, or Persian cumin is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe and Northern Africa....
, Salt of Tartar
Potassium carbonate
Potassium carbonate is a white salt, soluble in water , which forms a strongly alkaline solution. It can be made as the product of potassium hydroxide's absorbent reaction with carbon dioxide. It is deliquescent, often appearing a damp or wet solid...
, and scammony
Scammony
Scammony is a bindweed native to the countries of the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin; it grows in bushy waste places, from Syria in the south to the Crimea in the north, its range extending westward to the Greek islands, but not to northern Africa or Italy.It is a twining perennial,...
.
Uses
According to an early nineteenth century advertisement it was used for the following ailments: The Stone in Babes and Children; ConvulsionConvulsion
A convulsion is a medical condition where body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in an uncontrolled shaking of the body. Because a convulsion is often a symptom of an epileptic seizure, the term convulsion is sometimes used as a synonym for seizure...
fits
Seizure
An epileptic seizure, occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of "abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain". The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement or as mild as a brief loss of awareness...
; Consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and Bad Digestives
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
; Agues
Fever
Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...
; Piles
Hemorrhoid
Hemorrhoids or haemorrhoids , are vascular structures in the anal canal which help with stool control. They become pathological or piles when swollen or inflamed. In their physiological state they act as a cushion composed of arterio-venous channels and connective tissue that aid the passage of...
; Surfeits; Fits of the Mother and Vapours
Vapours (disease)
The term referring to illnesses known as Vapours is an archaic form for certain mental or physical states, such as hysteria, mania, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, fainting, withdrawal syndrome, mood swings or PMS, ascribed primarily to women and thought to be caused by internal emanations....
from the Spleen
Spleen
The spleen is an organ found in virtually all vertebrate animals with important roles in regard to red blood cells and the immune system. In humans, it is located in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen. It removes old red blood cells and holds a reserve of blood in case of hemorrhagic shock...
; Green Sickness
Chlorosis (medicine)
In medicine, chlorosis is a form of anemia named for the greenish tinge of the skin of a patient. Its symptoms include lack of energy, shortness of breath, dyspepsia, headaches, a capricious or scanty appetite and amenorrhoea...
; Children's Distempers, whether the Worms
Cestoda
This article describes the flatworm. For the medical condition, see Tapeworm infection.Cestoda is the name given to a class of parasitic flatworms, commonly called tapeworms, of the phylum Platyhelminthes. Its members live in the digestive tract of vertebrates as adults, and often in the bodies...
, Rickets
Rickets
Rickets is a softening of bones in children due to deficiency or impaired metabolism of vitamin D, magnesium , phosphorus or calcium, potentially leading to fractures and deformity. Rickets is among the most frequent childhood diseases in many developing countries...
, Stones
Urolithiasis
A bladder stone is a solid concretion or crystal aggregation found in the urinary bladder...
, Convulsions, Gripes
Baby colic
Colic is a condition in which an otherwise healthy baby cries or displays symptoms of distress frequently and for extended periods, without any discernible reason...
, King's Evil
Scrofula
Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis refers to a lymphadenitis of the cervical lymph nodes associated with tuberculosis. It was previously known as "scrofula".-The disease:...
, Joint Evil or any other disorder proceeding from Wind
Flatulence
Flatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals. The medical term for the mixture of gases is flatus, informally known as a fart, or simply gas...
or Crudities; Gout
Gout
Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...
and Rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
; Stone or Gravel
Kidney stone
A kidney stone, also known as a renal calculus is a solid concretion or crystal aggregation formed in the kidneys from dietary minerals in the urine...
in the Kidnies; Cholic and Griping of the Bowels
Colic
Colic is a form of pain which starts and stops abruptly. Types include:*Baby colic, a condition, usually in infants, characterized by incessant crying*Renal colic, a pain in the flank, characteristic of kidney stones...
; the Phthisic
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
(both as cure and preventative provided always that the patient be moderate in drinking, have a care to prevent taking cold and keep a good diet; Dropsy
Edema
Edema or oedema ; both words from the Greek , oídēma "swelling"), formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body that produces swelling...
and Scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
. The frequent use of the medicine to treat Colic, gripes or fret in horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s was deplored in early veterinary
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...
manuals.
Subsequent history
After Daffy's death in 1680 the recipe was left to his daughter Catherine, and his kinsmen Anthony and Daniel who were apothecariesApothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. Anthony Daffy moved to London in the 1690s and began to exploit the product issuing pamphlets such as Directions for taking elixir salutis or, the famous purging cordial, known by the name of Daffy's elixir salutis [London], [1690?]. His widow Elleanor Daffy continued from about 1693 and (their daughter?) Katharine from about 1707. During the early 18th century the product was advertised widely in the emerging national and local newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s. The success attracted several counterfeit copies, using inferior alcohol rather than brandy.
The medicine was later produced by William and Cluer Dicey & Co. of Bow Church yard c.1775 who claimed the sole rights of manufacture of the True Daffy's Elixir, although the recipe was not subject to any patent. Proprietorship was also then claimed by Peter Swinton of Salisbury Court and his son Anthony Daffy Swinton who may have been descended from the inventor. Dicey and Co. and their successors marketed it in the United States of America.
It then passed to Dicey and Sutton, and later to Messrs W. Sutton & Co. of Enfield
London Borough of Enfield
The London Borough of Enfield is the most northerly London borough and forms part of Outer London. It borders the London Boroughs of Barnet, Haringey and Waltham Forest...
Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
who continuing to market it throughout the nineteenth century. The use of Daffy's elixir is referred to in Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
's novel Barchester Towers
Barchester Towers
Barchester Towers, published in 1857, is the second novel in Anthony Trollope's series known as the "Chronicles of Barsetshire". It is possibly Trollope's best known work...
, 1857.
Early advertisements
Daffy’s original elixir salutis, vindicated against all counterfeits, &c. or, An advertisement by mee, Anthony Daffy, of London, citizen and student in physick, By way of vindication of my famous and generally approved cordial drink, (called elixir salutis) from the notoriously false suggestions of one Tho. Witherden of Bear-steed in the county of Kent, Gent. (as pretended;) Jane White, Robert Brooke, apothecary, and Edward Willet; all new upstatrt counterfitors of my elixir, and Ape-like imitators of my long since printed Books and Directions, (some of them, nigh verbatim, or word for word) and that to the jeopardy of many good, (but mis-in-formed) Peoples Healths, and Lives too; as also, from the false pretentions of other more sneaking Cub-Quacks, not yet lickt into form, but remaining Moon-blind brats, (still in swadling-clouts) I mean the numerous crew of libellous pamphleteeirs, which are (if possible) more dangerous counterfeiters of my Elixer . . . Advertisement by mee, Anthony Daffy s.n., 1690?].Daffy’s original and famous elixir salutis: the choice drink of health: or, health-bringing drink. Being a famous cordial drink, found out by the providence of the Almighty, and (for above twenty years) experienced by himself, and divers persons (whose names are at most of their desires here inserted) a most excellent preservative of man-kind. A secret far beyond any medicament yet known, and is found so agreeable to nature, that it effects all its operations, as nature would have it, and as a virtual expedient proposed by her, for reducing all her extreams unto an equal temper; the same being fitted unto all ages, sexes, complexions, and constitutions, and highly fortifying nature against any noxious humour, invading or offending the noble parts. Never published by any but by Anthony Daffy, student in physick, and since continued by his widow Elleanor Daffy, London : printed with allowance, for the author, by Tho. Milbourn dwelling in Jewen-Street, 1693.