/;]' George B. Grijfetihagen 



DRUG SUPPLIES 



IN THE 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



At the stiirt of the Kevolutiuu, the Colonies were cut 

 off jroin the source of their usual drug supply, England. 

 A jew drugs trickled through from the West Indies, but 

 by 1776 there was an acute shortage. 



Lack of coordination and transportation resulted in a 

 scarcity of drugs for the army hospitals even while 

 druggists in other areas resorted to advertising in order to 

 sell their stocks. Some relief came from British prii^e 

 ships captured by the American navy and privateers, but 

 the chaotic condition of drug supply was not eased until 

 the alliance with France early in 1778 . 



The Author : George Griffenhagen — formerly curator 

 of medical sciences. United States National Museum, 

 Smithsonian histitiition — is director of communications, 

 American Vharmaceutical Association, and managing 

 editor, JouDial of the American Pharmaceutical Asso- 

 ciation. 



/f s ONE HISTORIAN has reminded us, "lew 

 ^_/^ fields of history have been more intensively 

 cultivated by successive generations of historians; 

 few offer less reward in the shape of fresh facts or 

 theories" than does the American Revolutionary 

 War.* This is true to some extent even in the medical 

 history of the Revolution. The details of the feud 

 within the medical department of the army have been 

 told and retold.- Even accounts of the drugs employed 



1 John C. Miller, Trmmj^h of Freednni, 7775-77<S'.J, Boston, 1948. 

 preface. 



- Louis C. Duncan, Medical .Men in the .-imerican Revolution, 

 1775-1783, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., 1931; William O. Owen. 

 The Medical Department oj the United States Army during the Period 

 of the Revolution, New York, 1920; James E. Gibson, Dr. Bodo 

 Otto and the Medical Background oj the American Revolution, Spring- 

 field, 111., 1937; James Thomas Flexner, Doctors on Horseback, 

 New York, 1939. 



and pharmaceutical .services have been presented, 

 primarily in the form of biographies and as reviews 

 of the Lititz Pharmacopoeia of 1778. However, 

 practically nothing ha.s been published on the actual 

 availability of medical supplies. Furthermore, the 

 discovery of several significant but unrecorded account 

 books of private druggists who furnished sizable 



3 Lyman F. Kebler, "Andrew Ovigie, the Fii-st Apothecary 

 General of the United States," Journal oj the American Pharma- 

 ceutical Association, 1928, vol. 17, pp. 63-74, 167-178; Frederick 

 Haven Pratt, "The Craigics," Proceedings oj the Cambridge 

 Historical .Society (1941), 1942, vol. 27, pp. 43-86; Edward 

 Kremers and George Urdang, A History oj Pharmacy. Philadel- 

 phia, 1951 edition, chap. 11; Edward Kremers, "The Lititz 

 Pharmacopoeia," The Badger Pharmacist, nos. 22—25, June- 

 December 1938; J. W. England, ed., The First Century oj the 

 Philadelphia College oj Pharmacy, Philadelphia, 1922, pp. 84-94; 

 .American Journal oj Pharmacy, 1884, vol. 56, pp. 483-491. 



110 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



