request of the Massachusetts Provineial Congress to 

 assume control and direction of the forces assembled 

 around Boston. The Continental Congress estab- 

 lished a Continental Hospital Plan on July 27, but it 

 was not until September 14 that the Congress ap- 

 pointed a "committee to devise ways and means for 

 supplying the Continental Army with medicines." 

 On this .same day, the deputy commissary general 

 was directed to pay Dr. Samuel Stringer for the 

 medicines he purchased,'" which, as we learn later, 

 were the initial supply for the Canadian campaign. 



The first recorded purchase of drugs made directly 

 by Congress, on September 23, was "a parcel of 

 Drugs in the hands of Mr. Rapalje, which he ofl'ers at 

 the prime cost." " Then, on November 10, Congress 

 ordered that the medicine purchased in Philadelphia 

 for the army at Cambridge be sent there by land.'^ 

 But difficulties of supply commenced early. On 

 January 1, 1776, Eliphalet Dyer wrote Joseph 

 Trumbull asking "how could the cask of Rhubarb 

 which was sent by order of Congress and was ex- 

 tremely wanted in the Hospital lye by to this time. 

 After you came way I wrote to Daniel Brown to see 

 it delivered." '' 



In the fall of 1 775 there must have been a reason- 

 ably good stock of drugs in the hands of private 

 Philadelphia druggists, and until the end of summer 

 there were still a number of ships from Jamaica. 

 Bermuda, Antigua, and Barbados putting in at 

 Philadelphia with supplies, much of which originally 

 came from England. Philadelphia druggists included 

 William Drevvet Smith, "Chemist and Druggist at 

 Hippocrates's Head in Second Street"; '* Dr. George 

 Weed in Front Street; '° Robert Bass, "Apothecary 

 in Market-Street"; Dr. Anthony Yeldall "at his 

 Medicinal Ware-House in Front-Street"; '* and the 



'" Journals oj the Co?it menial Congress, 777 J- 77 S9, edited by 

 Worthington C. Ford, Washington, D.C., I'JOS, vol. 2, p. 250. 

 Nearly all excerpts from Ford also appear in Owen, op. cil. 

 (footnote 2). 



>' Ihid., vol. 3, p. 261 . The Samuel Ward diary for .September 

 23 records that "a parcel of medicines for the hospital" was "to 

 be bought" (E. C. Burnett, Lellers of Members of the Continental 

 Congress, Washington, D.C., 1921, vol. 1, p. 205). 



'■' Ford, op. cit. (footnote 10), vol. 3, p. 344. 



13 Burnett, op. cit. (footnote 11), vol. 1, p. 292. 



" Pennsylvania Ledger, May 6, 1775. [William Smith in 

 Philadelphia was selling drugs in 1772 (Potts Papers, vol. 1, 

 folio 52).] 



'^ Pennslyvania Evening Post, December 26, 1~75. 



^'•Pennsylvania Packet, .September 11, 1775: Pennsylvania 

 Journal, September 6, 1775; Pennsylvania Ga-elte, October 4, 1775. 



firm of Shar]) Delaney and William Smith.'" The 

 largest pharmacy in Philadelphia was operated by 

 the Marshall brothers — Christopher Jr. and Charles. 

 This pharmacy had been established in 1729 at Front 

 and Chestnut Streets by Christopher Marshall, Sr., 

 a patriot who took an active part in the care of the 

 sick and woimded in Philadelphia hospitals during 

 the Revolution.'^ 



As the plans progressed for raising troops from New 

 Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 

 North Carolina, and South Carolina, Congress called 

 on the committee on medicines "to procure proper 

 medicine chests for the battalions . . . ." '^ The 

 journal of the C^ontinental Congress fails to indicate 

 the source of these medicine chests, but the Marshall 

 brothers' manuscript "waste book" (daily record) for 

 the period February 21 to July 6, 1776,^" indicates 

 that the Marshall apothecary shop was the primary 

 supplier. The records show that the Marshalls fur- 

 nished 20 medicine chests to the following battalions 

 from February to June: ^' 

 February 1776: Pennsylvania ist Battalion 

 March 1776: Jersey 3d Battalion 

 April 1776: Pennsylvania 2d, 3d, and 6th Battalions 



May 1776: Six Virginia battalions 



Jersey ist Battalion 



Pennsylvania 4th Battalion 

 June 177B: Six North Carolina battalions 



Virginia 9th Battalion 



The e.xact contents of each chest are indicated in the 

 Marshalls' waste book. The chest furnished to the 

 Pennsylvania 4th Battalion is an example of the 

 ones supplied by Congress in the spring of 1776; 

 its contents are listed on page 130. 



Congress intended that all chests be substantially 

 the same, but the amount of medicines demanded 

 exceeded the stock of even the largest druggists. The 

 first several chests were complete as ordered, but as 

 early as April the Marshalls were running out of 



'^ The Marshalls sold drugs to .Sharp Delaney and William 

 .Smith in April 1776 (Marshall Waste Book, see footnote 20). 



" E. T. Ellis, "The Story of a Very Old Philadelphia Drug 

 .Store," American Journal of Pharmacy, 1908, vol. 75, p. 57: 

 England, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp.348-350; Parke, Davis & Co., 

 .■1 History oj Pharmacy in Pictures, imdated booklet edited by 

 George Bender. 



I" Ford, op. cit. (footnote 10), vol. 3, p. 442; vol. 4. pp. 188, 

 197. 



-" Ctiristopher Jr. and Charles Marshall Waste Book, Feb- 

 ruary 21 to July 6, 1776, at The Historical Society of Pennsyl- 

 vania, Philadelphia. 



-1 Ford, op. cit. (footnote 10), vol. 3, p. 442; vol. 4, pp. 188, 

 197; Burnett, op. cit. (footnote 11), vol. 1. 



112 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .AND TECHNOLOGY 



