Some of the shortages were eased, if not solved, l)y 

 local manufacture. Lint was produced in large 

 cjuantities in the C'olonies. and glass vials were manu- 

 factured in numerous glasshouses. E\cn local manu- 

 facture of the purging salts and nitre aided in 

 eliminating shortages of these essential items, and at 

 the same time initiated the first large-scale pharma- 

 ceutical manufacturing in America. 



Numerous Ijotanicals indigenous to the Colonies 

 were widely employed in medicine of the period, and 

 certain ones such as snakeroot (seneka). which was 

 wideK foimd growins) in \'irginia, would have been 

 very scarce had not an adequate supply been 

 immediately at hand. However, attempts to substi- 

 tute other indigenous plants for scarce drugs like 

 Peru\ian bark were largely unsuccessful. There is no 

 indication that hysop, wormwood, and mallows called 

 for during the New York crisis were ever found to be 

 suitable replacements for any of the capital article;. 

 Wine apparently was more useful as a substitute for 

 bark than the bark of butternut recommended by the 

 Lititz Pharmacopoeia. Peruvian bark, jalap, ipecac, 

 camphor, opium, cantharides — these are the drugs 



which the American army physicians wanted, and 

 these constituted the most serious shortage problems. 



The medical supply problem was placed on rela- 

 tively firm ground by the summer of 1778, having 

 been established on the principles proven in the 

 Northern Department under the guidance of Drs. 

 Potts and Craigie. Furthermore, the turning point 

 in the war had been reached. Even before Wash- 

 ington's forces went into winter quarters at Valley 

 Forge, Burgoyne '''' had surrendered at Saratoga, on 

 October 17, 1777; and, before the cold bleak winter at 

 Valley Forge was over, the treaty of French alliance 

 was signed on February 6, 1778. The torments at 

 Valley Forge proved to be the birth of a new Conti- 

 nental Army. 



The War was still a long way from being over, and 

 a variety of problems were yet to face the Continental 

 Army. Inflation was yet to deal its hardest blow to 

 the supply problem, but not even this could produce 

 the chaos of 1776. The worst of the drug supply 

 problem was over. 



1^' An interesting account of the medical aspects of Burgoyne's 

 campaign is recorded by R. M. Gorssline in Canadian Defense 

 Ouarlerly, 1929, vol. 6, pp. 356-363. 



Contents of Army Medicine Chests 



The following listing is an example of the contents of medicine chests ordered by the Continental Congress. 

 The chest for the Pennsylvania 4th Battalion was filled for ''Samuel Kennedy Surgeon" by the pharmacy of 

 Christopher Jr. and Charles Marshall of Philadelphia in May 1776. The medicines are listed on an invoice in the 

 Marshalls' waste book in the possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The contents of the Northern 

 Department chest, compiled in the Northern Department's "Medicinal Store"' for "Thos. Tillotson Esq. Surgeon 

 & Physician General to the Army," probably was filled by Andrew Craigie at Fort George in 1778. {Italics 

 denote capital article; asterisk indicates that the drug is mentioned in Lililz Pharniacnporia. Contemporary 

 English names are in parentheses following the Latin listings.) 



Botanicals 



*Cort\ex\ Peruv\iamtm] (Peruvian bark; Jesuits' bark; or baik) 

 *PuIv\is\ Cf}rt[icis\ Peruv\iani] (Powdered Peruvian bark) 



*Pulvis Radlix] Jalapii (Powdered jalap) 

 *Pulv[is] Rad\ix] Ipecacuan[hae] (Powdered ipecac) 

 *Puk)[is] R/id[!x] Rhaei (Powdered ihubarb) 



Rad[i.x] Rhaei (Rhubarb root) 

 *Fol[ia] Sennae (Sennae or sena) 

 *Rad[ix] Genlian[ae] (Gentian root) 

 *Rad[ix] Seneka (Senega; rattlesnake root; or snake root) 

 *Rad[ix] Scillae Sict. (Squill; or sea-onion) 



Cinnamomi (Cinnamon) 



I lb. 



130 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOG\' 



