n stores were short in '76, the chairman of
the Medical Committee, M. Thornton, was quick to reply on April 12
that

... we are highly pleased with your having the prospect of a
sufficient supply of medicines in your Department for the ensuing
Campaign, & approve of the returns you have made us.[124]

Valley Forge

Washington's forces were defeated at Brandywine on September 11, 1777,
and on September 25 the British army occupied Philadelphia.
Washington, after trying without success to dislodge them by a sudden
attack at Germantown on October 4, retreated to Valley Forge.

Business in Philadelphia under British occupation continued much as it
had under American control, except for a few missing suppliers and a
few new ones. One druggist who was little in evidence after the war
commenced was back in business advertising within two weeks after the
British occupied Philadelphia. It was William Drewet Smith (not to be
confused with William Smith) who advised "friends and customers ...
that they can be supplied with Medicine and Drugs as usual, at his
shop in Second-Street." To indicate that he was expecting an active
business, Smith also advertised for "a person who can be well
recommended for honesty and sobriety ... to attend a Druggist's
Shop."[125]

[Illustration: Figure 3.--Page from the Waste Book manuscript of the
Christopher Marshall, Jr., and Charles Marshall apothecary shop in
Philadelphia. This is the first page of the contents of a medicine
chest furnished on order of the Continental Congress for the
Pennsylvania 4th Battalion. Preserved at the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.]

[Illustration: Figure 4.--Page from the ledger of the Greenleaf
apothecary shop in Boston, showing the accounts between September 3,
1776, and May 28, 1777, with "the United American States" for
outfitting ships of the Continental Navy. Preserved at the American
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.]

During the British occupation there was a large number of thefts and
losses--perhaps aided by the American patriots who remained in
Philadelphia--that included drugs and surgical instruments. In
November an advertisement reported the loss of "a sett of Surgeons
Pocket instruments in a crimson chequered covering, with a silver
clasp. Whoever will bring them to the bar of the coffee-house or to
Mr. Allman, surgeons mate of the Royal Artillery, shall have a Guinea
reward, and no questions asked."