Nineteenth-century patent medicine hucksters peddled their fair share of cough syrups-- Buffalo Bill Cody marketed one called Cough Cream. But the world-famous cough remedy in drop form was first advertised by the Smith family in 1852. James Smith moved his family from Scotland to St. Armand, Quebec, then to Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1847, where he established a restaurant. There, according to legend, a traveling peddler called Sly Hawkins gave Smith the formula for a tasty and effective cough candy. Smith cooked up a batch on the kitchen stove and began advertising the James Smith and Sons Compound of Wild Cherry Cough Candy in 1852 as a remedy for coughs, colds, hoarseness, and sore throats. Smith's sons William and Andrew soon joined their father in the new enterprise, energetically peddling the cough candy around Poughkeepsie. Production moved from the kitchen to a nearby building, which became the world's first cough-drop factory. After James Smith's death, William and Andrew renamed their business Smith Brothers. Because the popularity of the cough drops gave birth to a rash of imitators who used similar names, the brothers designed a distinctive trademark for their product. They put their own pictures on retailers' dispensing bowls and on the customers' envelopes, with the word Trade under William's visage and Mark under Andrew's. After the brothers began producing factory-filled packages in 1877 (one of the first ever on the market) carrying their portrait trademark, William and Andrew became evermore known by the aliases Trade and Mark. Today, there are many brands and manufacturers of cough drops. Recently cough drops and throat lozenges have been manufactured containing the vitamin zinc, which some researchers have found may reduce the length of the average cold.