A
preservative against, or
remedy for,
evil; a
panacea sought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by folks of all
classes and
statures in England.
The word's
origin is from the
Greek alexein, to keep off, and
kakon, evil.
A
dose against
poison was called an
alexipharmic, and to
ward off
contagion was an
alexiteric or
alexitery.
Reference: Joseph Shipley's Dictionary of Early English.