SPHAGNUM MOSS — NICHOLS. 223 



strong sphagnum organization was built up by the Canadian Red 

 Cross, which, during the summer of 1918, was turning out upwards 

 of 200,000 sphagnum dressings per month. The total British output 

 of sphagnum surgical dressings toward the end of the war is esti- 

 mated to have been in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 per month. 



The sphagnum work of the American Red Cross was organized 

 under the leadership of the late Harry James Smith, brilliant New 

 York playwright, in the East, and of Professor J. W. Hotson, of the 

 University of Washington, in the West. Although the sphagnum 

 was not formally approved by the American Red Cross until March, 

 1918, more than half a million sphagnum surgical dressings were 

 turned out in this country between this time and the cessation of 

 hostilities. Most of these were made by the Chapters in the Pacific 

 Northwest where abundant supplies of sphagnum suitable for use 

 in surgical dressings were early located, but many were made in the 

 East. It was not until the summer of 1918, however, that adequate 

 supplies of raw material were located in the East and the first car- 

 load of eastern sphagnum was being loaded (at Old Town, Maine) 

 the day the armistice was signed. Our sphagnum enterprise was one 

 of the many which the abrupt termination of hostilities nipped in 

 the bud. 



ADVANTAGES OF SPHAGNUM OVER COTTON FOR USE IN SURGICAL DRESSINGS. 



The introduction of the sphagnum as a substitute for cotton in 

 absorbent surgical dressings was not accomplished without consid- 

 erable protest on the part of Army surgeons. But, although they 

 were objected to on various grounds, the sphagnum dressings grad- 

 ually won their way, not merely as a necessary makeshift, but on 

 their actual merits; for there seems to be little question that for 

 war hospital work the sphagnum moss is not merely a satisfactory 

 substitute ; in many respects, properly made sphagnum dressings are 

 .superior to dressings made of cotton. 



The advantages of the sphagnum for this purpose are as follows : 1 



1. Sphagnum will absorb liquids much more rapidly than absorb- 

 ent cotton — about three times as fast. 



2. Sphagnum will take up liquids in much greater amount than 

 in absorbent cotton. A cotton pad will absorb only five or six times 

 its weight of water, as compared with 16, 18, and even as high as 22 

 times for a sphagnum pad. 



3. Sphagnum will retain liquids much better than cotton, which 

 moans, of course, that sphagnum dressings need not be changed as 

 frequently as those made of cotton. 



4. The better grades of sphagnum "have the valuable property of 

 distributing whatever liquid they absorb throughout their whole 



•These observations are taken mainly from Torter, op. cit. 



