The Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia.
mental surgeons. This latter course he pursued in obedience to the resolve of Congress of July 12, 1776, as well as by repeated directions from the Commander-in-Chief, in order to oblige the regimental surgeons to send their sick to the General Hospital, and to look for such supplies as they might need from the proper officers—the Continental druggists.
The necessity for this resolve, to correct the abuses practised in drawing for all sorts of expensive stores, may be judged of from the fact that the Commissary-General complained that "it required a greater sum of money to answer their demands than was sufficient to defray the expenses of all the well men in the army." This measure, though deemed by Congress, after investigation, absolutely necessary, produced almost universal discontent among the regimental surgeons, who, in consequence of it, poured forth denunciations both loud and bitter against the chief of the hospital department. On the 9th of October of the same year, a further resolve of Congress reiterated "that no regimental hospital should be allowed in the neighbourhood of the General Hospital," a measure which had become imperative from the fact of the sick being retained in their regiments, without even reporting them to the Director. This gave rise to additional
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