certain drugs. Gum opium and nitre "found by- 

 Congress" was included in the chest for the Pennsyl- 

 vania 4th Battalion, and by May 11 the Marshalls 

 were out of Peruvian bark, ipecac, cream of tartar, 

 gum camphor, and red precipitate of mercury. The 

 chests outfitted after June 1 also failed to include 

 Epsom salts, and the last chest lacked jalap as well. 

 Thus the majority of the battalions traveling north 

 were already without some of the most necessary 

 drugs in their chests. Blithely their medical officers 

 thought they could obtain the missing drugs when 

 they arrived at the general hospital. 



Treason, Poison, and Siege 



After the Battle of Bunker Hill, the forces around 

 Boston settled down for a 9-month siege. Two days 

 after General Washington arrived in Cambridge on 

 July 2, 1775, to take command of the army, the 

 Provincial Congress of Massachtisetts ordered a com- 

 mittee to prepare a letter informing him of the pro- 

 visions that had been made for the sick and wounded 

 of the army. On the very same day, July 4, the 

 Provincial Congress appointed Andrew Craigie 

 medical commissary and apothecary for the Massa- 

 chusetts army. ^^ 



Following a personal inspection by Washington on 

 July 21 and the establishment of the general hospital 

 plan on July 27, the Continental Congress elected 

 Dr. Benjamin Church as director general of the 

 newly created medical department. Soon after this, 

 Church conferred with several Massachusetts 

 officials regarding the appointment of apothecaries 

 for the medical store at Watertown. On August 3, 

 a committee of the Provincial Congress advised "that 

 the Medical Store in Watertown be continued where 

 it now is, and that Mr. .Andrew Craigie, appointed by 

 the late Congress Apothecary to the Colony, be 

 directed to take charge thereof, and prepare the 

 necessary compositions; and that Mr. James Miller 

 Church be appointed Assistant Apothecary to put 

 up and distribute said Medicines. . . ." ^' 



The medical supplies were slow in coming from 

 Philadelphia, as we have already noted. On the 

 other hand, troops were arriving daily, placing an 

 increased demand on all types of supplies, including 

 drugs. One event which undoubtedly resulted in 

 delays in establishing proper supply depots was the 



" Owen, op. cit. (footnote 2), pp. 18-19. 



23 American Archives . . . Peter Force, ed., Washington, ser. 

 4, vol. I -6, 1837-46: ser. 5, vol. 1-3, 1848-53. Scr. 4, vol. 3, p. 306. 



Startling discovery that Director General Church was 

 guilty of holding treasonable correspondence with the 

 enemy. On October 16, Congress elected Dr. John 

 Morgan to replace Church. ^^ 



On December 2, by order of Morgan, .Apothecary 

 Craigie made an inventory of the medical supplies in 

 the general hospital at Cambridge. The inventory 

 included 120 different items, but only limited quan- 

 tities of the essential drugs. ^° There were 52 pounds 

 of Jesuits' bark, 18 pounds of cream of tartar, 76 

 pounds of purging salts, 1 pound of camphor, 5 

 pounds of jalap, 1 pound of ipecac, and )i pound of 

 tartar emetic. The 44 pounds of gum ammoniac 

 was reported "damaged," and the 86 pounds of 

 rhubarb was described as "bad." ^^ An inventory of 

 medicines held by the different regimental surgeons 

 in Massachusetts indicated that all regiments had 

 "but few medicines" except for Colonel Hand's, 

 which reported "a good supply." ^" 



However, this rather meager inventory of drugs 

 probably was not inadequate. The siege of Boston 

 resulted in few wounded soldiers, and there was a 

 surprisingly small amount of sickness in the army 

 during the winter of 1775-76; furthermore, towns not 

 too distant still had a limited supply of drugs on hand. 

 Smith and Coit, of Hartford, Connecticut, informed 

 "their good Customers, and the public in general, 

 that notwithstanding the entire stop to Importation 

 which hath long since taken place, they still have on 

 hand, small Quantities of most Articles of the Apothe- 

 cary Way . . . which they mean to sell at a reason- 

 able retailing Price." -* Jacob Isaacks of Newport, 

 Rhode Island, similarly advertised "a complete 

 assortment of genuine Medicines, with furniture for 

 containing the same, to the amount of about 300 

 pounds sterling; which medicines were purchased 

 with cash, and will be sold, at the prime cost and 

 charges, without any advance. Any of the lawful or 

 Continental bills now current will be taken in pay for 

 the above medicines." ^' 



Drug supplies also were quite adequate in Boston 

 during the British occupation. Sylvester Gardiner 

 at "The Sign of the Unicorn and Mortar in Marl- 

 borow Street" reported that "all kinds of the best and 



2< Duncan, op. cit. (footnote 2), pp. 62-64. 

 " Penmylfama Packet, ]\\nQ 24, 1779. 



-'6 It is quite pos.sible that the designation ■■bad" was a 

 typographical error for "rad[ix]." 

 2' American Archives, ser. 4, vol. 5, p. 115. 

 2S Conneclicut Courant, February 12, 1776. 

 29 .\ewporl ;V/crn/r>', January 15, 1776. 



PAPER 16: DRUG SUPPLIES IN THE .AMERIC.a^N REVOLUTION 



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