ammoniac, common salt, and burnt sponge. Paracelsus recommended that coral should be worn round the necks of children to preserve them from the effects of sorcery.
Daffy's Elixir.
The Rev. Thomas Daffy, who invented the Elixir Salutis with which his name has been associated for about 250 years, was rector of Redmile in Leicestershire from 1660 to 1680. He had been appointed rector of Harby in the same county in Cromwell's time, but the Countess of Rutland, who presumably "sat under" him, was a lady of evangelical ideas, and the Rev. Thomas was apparently of a "high" tendency, for according to Nichols's "History of Leicestershire," "he was removed from that better living to this worse one to satisfy the spleen of the Countess of Rutland, a puritanical lady who had conceived a feeling against him for being a man of other principles." Just when he invented his elixir does not appear, but it is to be hoped that the profits from it made up for the sacrifice he had to make in consequence of his "other principles." It is clear from the references to the medicine which are found in general literature and from the fact that it was imitated in the Pharmacopœia (under the formula for Tinctura Sennæ Co.) that it acquired considerable popularity. The following advertisement from the Post Boy of January 1, 1707, tells most of what is known about the elixir:—
Daffye's famous Elixir Salutis, prepared by Catherine Daffye,
daughter of Mr. Thomas Daffye, late rector of Redmile in the vale
of Belvoir, who imparted it to his kinsman, Mr. Anthony Daffye,
who published the same to the benefit of the community and to his
own advantage. The original receipt is now in my possession left
