. On January 1, 1776, Eliphalet Dyer wrote Joseph
Trumbull asking "how could the cask of Rhubarb which was sent by order
of Congress and was extremely wanted in the Hospital lye by to this
time. After you came way I wrote to Daniel Brown to see it
delivered."[13]

In the fall of 1775 there must have been a reasonably good stock of
drugs in the hands of private Philadelphia druggists, and until the
end of summer there were still a number of ships from Jamaica,
Bermuda, Antigua, and Barbados putting in at Philadelphia with
supplies, much of which originally came from England. Philadelphia
druggists included William Drewet Smith, "Chemist and Druggist at
Hippocrates's Head in Second Street";[14] Dr. George Weed in Front
Street;[15] Robert Bass, "Apothecary in Market-Street"; Dr. Anthony
Yeldall "at his Medicinal Ware-House in Front-Street";[16] and the
firm of Sharp Delaney and William Smith.[17] The largest pharmacy in
Philadelphia was operated by the Marshall brothers--Christopher Jr.
and Charles. This pharmacy had been established in 1729 at Front and
Chestnut Streets by Christopher Marshall, Sr., a patriot who took an
active part in the care of the sick and wounded in Philadelphia
hospitals during the Revolution.[18]

As the plans progressed for raising troops from New Jersey, Maryland,
Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina,
Congress called on the committee on medicines "to procure proper
medicine chests for the battalions...."[19] The journal of the
Continental Congress fails to indicate the source of these medicine
chests, but the Marshall brothers' manuscript "waste book" (daily
record) for the period February 21 to July 6, 1776,[20] indicates that
the Marshall apothecary shop was the primary supplier. The records
show that the Marshalls furnished 20 medicine chests to the following
battalions from February to June:[21]

February 1776: Pennsylvania 1st Battalion
March 1776: Jersey 3d Battalion
April 1776: Pennsylvania 2d, 3d, and 6th Battalions
May 1776: Six Virginia battalions
Jersey 1st Battalion
Pennsylvania 4th Battalion
June 1776: Six North Carolina battalions
Virginia 9th Battalion

The exact contents of each chest are indicated in the Marshalls' waste
book. The chest furnished to the Pennsylvania 4th Battalion is an
example of the ones supplied by Congress in the spring of 1776; its
contents are