G 



(Reprinted frOm The BrVoi.Ogist, Vol. XXI, No. 4, July igi8.] 



WAR WORK FOR BRYOLOGISTSi 



George E. Nichols 



Until quite recently, sphagnum has not been generally considered as pos- 

 sessing any particular economic value, except in connection with the formation 

 of peat, where its importance is well recognized. To be sure, it is used quite 

 extensively by florists and nurser>'men as packing material for plants, and lo- 

 cally it is employed for stable litter and bedding, as well as for various other 

 purposes. But its value in surgical work, while recognized many years ago in 

 Germany, has been little appreciated outside of that country, and it is o;ily 

 recently that this phase has ccme into prominence. At the present time sphag- 

 num is being used to a vast extent, particularly by the British Red Cross, in 

 place of absorbent cotton in surgical dressings. According to Professor Hotson,* 

 the present British output of sphagnum dressings amounts to a million per 

 month. And while the sphagnum was advocated primarily as a war substitute, 

 there is little question that it will retain a permanent position as a standard 

 material for absorbent surgical dressings. 



For use in absorbent pads, the sphagnum is not merely equal to absorbent 

 cotton — it is superior to it. According to Professor Porter,^ sphagnum pads 

 surpass cotton pads in the following important particulars: (i) they absorb 

 liquids much more rapidly: about three times as fast; (2) they take up liquids 

 In much greater amounts: a cotton pad will absorb only five or six times its 

 weight of water, as compared with sixteen, eighteen, and even as high as twenty- 

 two times, for a sphagnum pad; (3) they retain liquids much better: which means, 

 of course, that the dressings need be changed less frequently; (4) they distribute 

 the absorbed liquids more uniformly throughout their mass; (5) they are cooler 

 and less irritating, yet at the same time fully as soft; (6) they can be produced 

 at much less expense. 



The structural peculiarities of the sphagnum plant, which enable it to take 

 up and retain liquids, are, of course, familiar to all moss students and require 

 only brief comment. Suffice it to say that whereas in a cotton pad liquids for 

 the most part are merely held within a tangle of threads, in the sphagnum we 

 have a highly efficient absorbing system. The ability of the sphagnum in this 

 respect can be attributed to three features: (i) the presence of the large, color- 



' Contribution from the Osbom Botanical Laboratory. 



* Hotson, J. W. Sphagnum as a surgical dressing. I-31. /. l-iS. Northwest Division of 

 the American Red Cross. Seattle. 1918. 



^ Porter. J. B. Sphagnum surgical dressings. Intemat. Joum. Surgery 30: 129-135. /. 1-8. 

 1917. Distributed as a separate by the Canadian Red Cross. 



