222 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



cal journals, in which the sphagnum, as related to surgical practice, 

 was discussed from various points of view ; and within a very few 

 years this moss came to be accepted in Germany as a standard 

 material for surgical dressings, being used not only in private prac- 

 tice but in some of the largest hospitals. Outside of Germany the 

 sphagnum is known to have been used in this country by at least one 

 prominent surgeon fully 20 years ago, but in general its value for 

 use in surgical dressings has not been appreciated until quite recently. 



USE OF SPHAGNUM SURGICAL DRESSINGS DURING THE RECENT WAR. 



Sphagnum was probably first used on a large scale during the 

 Russian- Japanese war, when it was extensively employed by the 

 Japanese as a first-aid dressing. " Many of the wounds thus dressed 

 with sphagnum were not inspected again until the patient reached 

 Japan, which often took 10 days, but almost invariably the wound 

 was in good condition ; much better it is said than when cotton was 

 used." x 



The history of its use in the recent war is somewhat as follows. 

 Shortly after the outbreak of the war it began to be feared in Eng- 

 land that there might be a serious shortage of cotton, and experi- 

 ments were made with various materials — oakum, wood pulp, and 

 even sawdust — in the hope of finding some satisfactory substitute. 

 It was at this time that attention was directed by C. W. Cathcart, 

 an Edinburgh surgeon attached to the British Army medical forces, 

 to the neglected possibilities of the sphagnum. 2 In 1914 sphagnum 

 dressings were given a thorough try-out at one of the large war 

 hospitals in Scotland, and the results proved so satisfactory that 

 sphagnum was at once recommended for general use. In September, 

 1915, sphagnum dresssings were formally accepted by the British 

 war office. At this time the total British output of sphagnum sur- 

 gical dressings was barely 250 a month. But the work rapidly as- 

 sumed large proportions, and we are informed by the London 

 Graphic for September 2, 1910, that the collecting and drying of 

 sphagnum moss and making it up into surgical dressings "has be- 

 come a national industry " in Scotland, and that " the work is being 

 extended all over England, Ireland, and Wales." By the end of 

 1916 the monthly output of sphagnum surgical dressings from British 

 organizations had come to exceed 200,000. 



On this side of the Atlantic the importance of the sphagnum en- 

 terprise was first brought into prominence early in 1917, by Professor 

 J. B. Porter, of McGill University. Largely through his efforts a 



1 Hotson, J. W. Sphagnum as a surgical dressing, pp. 1-31. f. 1-18. Bulletin issued 

 by the Northwest Division of the American Red Cross. Seattle, 1918. Reprinted in 

 Jour. Amer. Peat Soc. 11 : 195-226. 1918. 



2 See especially a paper by Cathcart, C. W., and Balfour, I. B., in the Scotsman for 

 November 17. 1914, and one by Cathcart in Brit. Med. Jour. 38 : 137-139. 1915. 



