preparation
of proper dosage forms. Surgeon McCrea on board the _Royal Savage_
wrote on September 2 that he "found a great inconvenience for want of
scales & waits,"[89] and the surgeon at Crown Point wrote on September
19 that "the Medicines which I rec'd a few days ago will be of very
little Benefit as I have no fit Mortar &c to prepare them with & must
use them in Decoction."[90]

It wasn't until October that any relief arrived, and even then there
were disappointments. Andrew Craigie, at Fort George, received a
wagonload of herbs on October 3, but, as Craigie reported to Potts,
"one half the load is entirely useless, containing Saffron, Pink
flower, and whole H[eade]d Pennyroyal, &c. &c. Dr. Brown thinks his
broad shoulders would carry all the articles that are worth anything."
Craigie recommended to Potts that payment should not be made for all
the useless articles.[91]

The long-lost Stringer finally arrived at Albany from Boston on
October 5 and reported to Gates that he had met the greatest success
in procuring L5,000 of medicines.[92] Ten days later, Stringer wrote
Potts that he was now forwarding "by waggon two Barrels & 1 Box of
Medicines ... [which] will suffice for the present, not thinking it
prudent to send up the whole, especially as we can always get them up
as they are wanted."[93]

Even after the long delay, most of the supplies were still held in
Albany instead of being distributed among the surgeons who needed
them. This infuriated Potts to a point that even Stringer found it
necessary, on October 25, to explain:

I received yesterday a letter from you ... before this time you
will have rec'd such of the articles you desired as we had to spare
[from] the Medicines I purchased at Boston ... I thought [it] not
proper to risque [them] up here; neither were any of them in
powder, and all that were so at this place we sent you, and have
two hands busy in preparing more for our own use. I hope that [the
shipment] sent will be sufficient for your purpose.[94]

Andrew Craigie had sent three barrels and four boxes of supplies to
Ticonderoga on October 22,[95] but the shipment obviously did not
suffice. On November 7 Stringer wrote that "as soon as possible the
Medicines you wrote for shall be prepared and sent, but they are
chiefly to be pulverized." In his typical style he added, "I cannot
conceive what use you will have for five sieves when you have no large
morta