The largest drain on medical supplies appears not to have been during the height of winter but rather in the early spring when the medicine chests of various regiments and hospitals were being restocked for the expected spring offensive. The first step was to supplement the supply of medical supplies on hand. In late February or early March, Dr. William Brown sent Purveyor General Potts a list of needs of the entire medical department that included £20,000 worth of medicines, vials, corks, etc.[131] Dr. Brown supplemented this list with a letter to Potts dated March 11 in which he itemized the following equipment:[132]
3 doz. Boxes Small Apothecary's Weights & Scales
3 doz. Bolus knives
3 doz. Pot Spathulae
2 doz. Marble Mortars, of one pint, & Pestles
2 doz. Setts Measures, from ½ ounce to 1 [pint?]
6 doz. Earthen Vessels (deep) with handles—of different sizes, from 2 quarts to 2 galls, for boiling Decoctions, or 2 doz. copper Do. of one gallon—for that purpose.
6 doz. Delft Ware Tiles, for mixing Boluses &c. on.
While Dr. Brown was completing his report on medical supplies, he was also concluding his compilation of an emergency military hospital formulary which has become known as the Lititz Pharmacopoeia, so named because Brown was making Lititz his headquarters at the time. The preface is dated "Lititz, March 12, 1778." The actual title (translated from Latin) reads: "Formulary of simple and yet efficacious remedies for the use of the military hospital, belonging to the army of the Federated States of America. Especially adapted to our poverty and straitened circumstances, caused by the ferocious inhumanity of the enemy, and the cruel war unexpectedly brought upon our fatherland." This formulary was published by Styner & Cist of Philadelphia in 1778, which means that it was not actually printed until sometime after June 18, when the British evacuated Philadelphia.
In the preface Brown explained that there were two types of formulas contained in the Lititz Pharmacopoeia; one was the "medicaments which must be prepared and compounded in a general laboratory; the others are to be mixed, as needed, in our hospital dispensaries."