listed on page 130.

Congress intended that all chests be substantially the same, but the
amount of medicines demanded exceeded the stock of even the largest
druggists. The first several chests were complete as ordered, but as
early as April the Marshalls were running out of certain drugs. Gum
opium and nitre "found by Congress" was included in the chest for the
Pennsylvania 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 Massachusetts ordered a committee to prepare a letter
informing him of the provisions 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 Massachusetts army.[22]

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...."[23]

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 est