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George B. Griffenhagen

DRUG SUPPLIES in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Paper 16, pages 109-133, from

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

United States National Museum BULLETIN 225

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WASHINGTON, D.C., 1961

Contributions from

The Museum of History and Technology

Paper 16

Drug Supplies in the American Revolution

George B. Griffenhagen

CONTINENTAL MEDICINE CHESTS 111

TREASON, POISON, AND SIEGE 113

FROM BAD TO WORSE 115

"MEDICINES--NONE" 118

PRIVATEERS TO THE RESCUE 121

BRISK BUSINESS IN BOSTON 122

THE SITUATION IMPROVES 122

VALLEY FORGE 123

IN SUMMARY 129

DRUG SUPPLIES IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

by George B. Griffenhagen

At the start of the Revolution, the Colonies were cut off from the source of their usual drug supply, England. A few drugs trickled through from the West Indies, but by 1776 there was an acute shortage.

Lack of coordination and transportation resulted in a scarcity of drugs for the army hospitals even while druggists in other areas resorted to advertising in order to sell their stocks. Some relief came from British prize ships captured by the American navy and privateers, but the chaotic condition of drug supply was not eased until the alliance with France early in 1778.

The Author: George Griffenhagen--formerly curator of medical sciences, United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution--is director of communications, American Pharmaceutical Association, and managing editor, Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association.

As one historian has reminded us, "few fields of history have been more intensively cultivated by successive generations of historians; few offer less reward in the shape of fresh facts or theories" than does the American Revolutionary War. This is true to some extent even in the medical history of the Revolution. The details of the feud within the medical department of the army have been told and retold. Even accounts of the drugs employed and pharmaceutical services have been presented, primarily in the form of biographies and as reviews of the Lititz Pharmacopoeia of 1778. However, practically nothing has been published on the actual availability of medical supplies. Furthermore, the discovery of several significant but unrecorded account books of private druggists who furnished sizable quantities of drugs to the Continental Army and a careful re-evaluation of the unusually significant papers of Dr. Jonathan Potts, Revolutionary War surgeon, justify a review of the drug supplies during the early years of the war.

Continental Medicine Chests