supplies by using their personal money and waiting 

 on Congress to reimburse them. During 1778, 

 Congress advanced some $940,000 to Purveyor 

 General Potts alone for the exclusive use of the 

 hospital department, and these funds were in turn 

 distributed to the proper medical procurement officers, 

 including the apothecaries. It is significant to 

 compare the sum of $1,095,000 provided by Congress 

 in 1778 with £10,000 (about $27,000) which, ac- 

 cording to Morgan, was the limit for medical and 

 hospital supplies in 1776.'^' True, inflation had set 

 in by 1778, and the value of money had declined 

 greatly. For example, cantharides purchased from 

 the Marshalls' apothecary shop in Philadelphia in 

 1776 cost 10 shillings per pound as compared with the 

 cantharides Craigie purchased in Baltimore in 1778 

 at £20 per pound. However, the worst of the 

 inflation was yet to come.'*^ 



In Summary 



Initially the drug supplies for the American Revolu- 

 tionary Army had come from stocks largely in the 

 hands of private druggists. However, this source of 

 supply was totally inadequate for a war that attained 

 such proportions as the Revolution. Even if stocks 

 of drugs in the Colonies had been far greater than 

 they were, there is little reason to believe that shortages 

 would not have developed. After all, a good many of 

 the suppliers were Loyalists, and others were in- 

 different to the cause of American lilaerty. Even the 

 most patriotic pharmacists were faced with a complete 

 financial suicide, caught between a spiraling inflation 

 and a Congress that had no monev and onlv a 

 promise for the future. 



As if all these problems were not bad enough, the 

 internal organization of the medical department of 

 the army was so chaotic that, even if adequate supplies 

 were available and if the almost insurmountable 

 problems of communications and transportation were 

 solved, it is almost certain that shortages would have 

 developed at least during the campaign of 1776. 

 Add to this the fact that any retreating army is subject 

 to loss of supplies and the reasons for the shortages 

 become very obvious. 



The encouragement which Congress, through its 

 Secret Committee, gave to private shippers for the 

 importation of vital war materials offered little relief 



'=' Gibson, op. cit. (footnote 2), p. 178, and Duncan, op. cil. 

 (footnote 2), pp. 115-116, 275. 

 i« Millei, op. cit. (footnote 1), pp. 425-477, 



in the field of medical supplies. Importation was, of 

 course, cut off from England, and France did not 

 directly export any quantity of medical supplies, at 

 least until 1778. American privateers found it much 

 more profitable to prey on British shipping than 

 initiating trade channels with countries which prior 

 to the Revolution were prohibited from shipping 

 directly to the Colonies. These channels of commerce 

 did not develop extensively until well after the 

 Rexolution. 



Hence the most immediate relief from medical sup- 

 ply shortages was provided by the American pri\a- 

 teers. Drug cargoes from British prize ships, many 

 of which w ere en route to New York, served as a most 

 important source of supply, particularly in 1777 and 

 1778. 



However, even with the most adequate supplies, 

 competition between different branches of the army 

 and navy and the confiscation of supplies destined 

 for Continental troops by state militias further en- 

 couraged inflationary trends. 



The nuinber of individual drugs mentioned in 

 \arious in\entories was considerable, as evidenced by 

 the listing on page 1 30. However, of these, only about 

 a dozen constituted the really critical shortages. 

 Heading the list of these "capital articles" was 

 Peru\ ian or Jesuits' bark, the same cinchona from 

 which quinine was later discovered. Tons of bark 

 were used during the Re\olutionary War, and the 

 price more than quandrupled between June 1776 

 and September 1777. 



The most prominent group of drugs on the list of 

 capital articles consisted of cathartics and purgatives. 

 Jalap, ipecac, and rhubarb were the botanical favor- 

 ites, while bitter purging salts (Epsom salts) and 

 Glauber's purging salts were the chemical choices 

 for purging. Tartar emetic (antimony and potas- 

 sium tartrate) was the choice for a vomit, and can- 

 tharides (Spanish flies) was the most important 

 ingredient of blistering plasters. Gum opium was 

 administered for its narcotic effects, while gum cam- 

 phor, nitre (saltpetre or potassium nitrate), and 

 mercury (pure metal as well as certain salts) were 

 employed for a variety of purposes. Lint, a fcrm of 

 absorbent material made by scraping or picking apart 

 old woNcn material, also often was short in supply. 



Equipment shortages included surgical instruments 

 and mortar and pestles for pulverizing the crude 

 drugs. Glass \ials for holding compounded medicines 

 were also a supph problem, especially after essential 

 drugs were again available. 



PAPER 16: DRUG SUPPLIES IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



129 



