White House Secretary and medicine cabinet taken from White House in 1812. Washington, D.C., April 26. Stephen Early, Secretary to President Roosevelt with a mahogany brass bound medicine chest which was taken from the White House by a British sailor during the War of 1812 and returned yesterday by descendants of the sailor. The chest, in perfect condition, still contained the medicines, with the addition of a quantity of hemlock bark, an herb used by sailors to prevent scurvy