m 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 poun