From
http://genforum.genealogy.com/coutts/messages/415.html:
"Alexander Coutts (abt 1775 - 7 Mar 1853), who is buried at St Peter’s Graveyard, King Street, Aberdeen. Alexander was father of Francis Coutts, the inventor of the ‘Acid cure’ using acetic acid for a variety of ills (I have a bottle, but don’t think I’ll try it). We have a biography of Francis written by his son John, which identifies his parents and Francis’ birth on 5 Mar 1806 in the croft at Cuttleburn, Coull, near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. Alexander’s birth was recorded in Logie Coldstone (only a few miles from Coull) on 5 Nov 1773 – a little early from the date back-calculated from his MI, but not unreasonable, with parents William Coutts (27th Mar 1736) and Elspet Williams of Bethen, who married 31 Dec 1767. William himself is probably the son of William Coutts and Jean Farqur."
- By Christopher Lyal [I have a Lyall on my family tree.]
On SP -
05/11/1773 COUTS ALEXANDER WILLIAM COUTS/ M LOGIE COLDSTONE/ABERDEEN 217/00 0010 0033 [this is the farmer, Francis's dad, husband of Ann Summers/Somer]
I still can't find Francis's OPR birth, 1806. Nor the Couts-Summers marriage circa 1790-1807. On SP I can see an Alexander Couts marrying an Ann
Kesson in Logie Coldstone, 1791.
Apart from Francis, Alexander Cout(t)s and Anne Simmers/Symers also had children Janet Couts (b. 1797) and William Coutts (b. 1798), both born in Midmar, Aberdeenshire. [On FS]
From the book, "Scottish Notes and Queries" Vol. VIII (1894) -
"... in lore passing irom this point,
however, I ma)' lu: allowed to remark that
Aberdeenshire has been almost as much notcil
for the number of great i|uacks it has ])roduced
as for its fertility in dislmgnished meml}ers of
the legitimate piofessioii. 'I'hus, without in-
cluding Adam Donald, the famous Witch
I Jocioi and I'lophel of ISelhelnie who flourished
ill .'\bi rdeeiislme in ihe i.Sth Century, it is a
signilicaiU fact that even m oiu" own cenlury
iIkiI iiMinty has been v ei y smcesbful in raising
uiilable quacks. For perhaps the mostsuccess-
hil (.(tiack of the. ceiiiuiy, James Morison, the
notorious " hygeist" as he called himself, whose
pills had a run that few patent meilicines have
ever had, was of Abeideenshirc- birth, ami hailed
bom. the parish of !• (Ugue ; v\hile
Francis Coutts,
the inventor of what is known as the acid cure,
was also .111 .\berd>.ni,m bred and bom." [my emphasis]
http://archive.org/stream/scottishnotesque08aber/scottishnotesque08aber_djvu.txt 
