I this day received a letter from Messrs. Lux & Bowley informing
me, the waggons were arrived, but to their great surprise with only
two packages of medicines, the others being seized near
Williamsburg for the use of Virginia State. Those arrived contain
but a very small share of any of the articles mentioned in your
list and I believe none of the Bark and Cantharides. I shall
immediately proceed to Baltimore and examine those two packages &
if good send them on to Manheim, provided the price is
agreeable.... I shall inquire into the circumstances of the seizure
and endeavor to find out if there has been any unfair play which I
can hardly suspect from the character of the Gentlemen.
Just prior to May 1, Craigie returned to Carlisle, where the
"Elaboratory and Stores for the reception of the medicines &c.
belonging to the military hospitals" was established,[139] and
complained that he did not find the medicinal store in the order which
he expected to find it:
We have many important medicines but by no means an assortment
sufficient for the Army. I speak only of what is now in store.
There are Medicines in different places of which I have no list.
Craigie further noted that Cutting had come up from Yellow Springs on
May 1 to confer regarding plans for completing medicine chests, and
would leave the following day for Baltimore where he obviously was
going to try to purchase more drugs.
Craigie was puzzled by the establishment of a dispensing store at
Yellow Springs, and asked whether or not the plan was
... to have the principle Store at Carlisle, where all the
medicines shall be prepared, and the Chests compleated supposing
the Genl. Hospitals will be more collected, and the number
lessened. I would propose that an Apothecary attend each with a
compleate Chest of Medicines; that the Surgeon & Physician Genl of
the Army be attended by an Apothecary with good Chest, and the
Regiments supply'd upon the Northern Plan. I would have an Issuing
Store established at a convenient distance from the Army, from
which the Hospital and Regimental Chests might occasionally be
replenished.[140]
A sizable stock of drugs was finally received from Baltimore,[141] and
a fairly good stock was brought down from the stores in the Northern
Department, which were left well supplied by Craigie and Potts.[142]
An improved plan for obtaining lint from the Moravian Sisters at
Bethlehem and Lititz was proposed by Dr. Brown,[143] and "the
propriety of setting the glass works at Manheim agoing" was offered as
a solution by Craigie for obtaining much needed vials.[144] Local
manufacturing at Carlisle[145] and "in the Jersies"[146] was used as a
source of volatile and purging salts.
Gibson records[147] that between April 19 and May 3, 1778, the
commands of Generals Patterson, Leonard, Poor, Glover, Scott, and
Woodward turned in their medicine chests to Apothecary Cutting at
Yellow Springs, and that every regiment received a standardized field
box containing a definite list and quantity of necessary drugs and
supplies. However, it appears likely that the project started by
Cutting and continued by Craigie was not completed until late June at
the earliest.[148] The "invoice of those things thought essential for
the protection and health of soldiers in the field or camp" presented
by Gibson[149] is actually an "Invoice of a Chest of medicines &c.
compleated in the medicinal Store, N[orthern] D[epartmen]t for Thos.
Tillotson Esq."[150] Inasmuch as the plan used in the Northern
Department was employed by both Craigie and Cutting, the items on this
invoice may serve as a reasonably good picture of the medicine chests
of '78 as compared with those of '76 (see page 130).
One of the reasons for better supplies at a time when other conditions
were even worse than they were in 1776 is the fact that Congress was
advancing sizable, if not always completely adequate, amounts of money
for the cash purchase of supplies instead of seeking credit or
expecting those responsible to procure 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 L10,000 (about $27,000) which,
according to Morgan, was the limit for medical and hospital supplies
in 1776.[151] 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 L20 per pound. However, the worst of the
inflation was yet to come.[152]