or use of the Continental Hospital" the
New York Provincial Congress rejected his plea on June 26 with the
explanation that this medicine was to be "reserved for the use of the
poor and other inhabitants of this city."[53]

With increasing demands to supply the troops in the Northern
Department, Morgan turned to Philadelphia and the Continental
Congress. Morgan owned a small stock of drugs in Philadelphia, and
knew of another supply in the possession of the firm of Delaney and
Smith,[54] so he sent Dr. Barnabus Binney to Philadelphia to forward
"with all dispatch" what medicines he had there and whatever could be
obtained from Congress.[55] Congress resolved on July 17 "to purchase
the Medicines (now in Phila) belonging to Doctor Morgan,"[56] but for
nearly a month Binney was unable to obtain any additional supplies
either from Congress or from private sources.

On June 25 Morgan wrote to Samuel Adams asking for power "to demand a
proportion of the Continental medicines left in care of Messrs.
Delaney & Smith," and he repeated the request in July. However,
Morgan's only reply from Adams, dated August 5, made no mention of the
Delaney and Smith drug stock. Instead Adams wrote only: "I have
received several letters from you, which I should have sooner
acknowledged, if I could only have found leisure. I took however, the
necessary steps to have what you requested effected in Congress."[57]

Finally, on August 8, Congress directed the committee for procuring
medicines "to supply the director general of the Hospital with such
medicines as he may want."[58] By this time, such a resolution was
hardly much consolation to Morgan. Evidence of the status of the
supplies in the general hospital at New York can be gleaned from an
advertisement in the _New-York Gazette_ of July 29 signed by Thomas
Carnes, "Steward and Quarter-Master to the General Hospital":

WANTED immediately ... a large quantity of dry herbs, for baths,
fomentations, &c. &c. particularly baum hysop, wormwood and
mallows, for which a good price will be given. The good people of
the neighboring towns, and even those who live more remote from
this city, by carefully collecting and curing quantities of useful
herbs will greatly promote the good of the Army, and considerably
benefit themselves.

The retreat from Long Island on August 27 and the subsequent loss of
New York City to the British certainly did not help the medical sup