206 
250 a month. A year later it had reached 150,000, and at the 
present time it is nea a a ae The Canadian Red Cross 
alone is no and three hundred thousand 
sphagnum aha each month. 
In our own country the aa enterprise, so far as the 
National Red Cross is eae is still in its infancy. ut we 
have long since passed the stage of experimentation and have 
reached the stage where sphagnum dressings are being produced 
in considerable quantities. The American Red Cross has re- 
t f 
cently turned a million sphagnum dressings for the 
Italian army, and something over twenty thousand a month are 
now being e for American war hospitals. Bu sphagnum 
the large scale which it is anticipated that it will be in the near 
future. For one thing, our American army surgeons, accus- 
tomed to the use of absorbent cotton and still having plenty of 
this on hand, hesitate about adopting a substitute. It is inevi- 
table, however, that sooner or later the value of sphagnum in 
For just what purpose is the sphagnum used in surgical work? 
Sphagnum is used to replace cotton in absorbent surgical 
— what are known technically as absorbent pads, or 
nie 
0 long as there is plenty of cotton, why trouble with a sub- 
ree, And, af it is desirable to use a substitute, why select sphag- 
num rather than something else! 
r use in absorbent surgical dressings sphagnum moss is n 
merely a satisfactory substitute. [ et respects, without 
question, it is superior to absorbent c 
Le of se ane will ere ae much more rapidly 
than about three times as fast. 
In the second ae the sphagnum will take up liquids in 
* 
fol, 
taken mainly from Porter, op. cit. 
