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was cleaned, the coarser, foreign material removed, then washed and dried. 

 Coarse muslin or cotton sacks, used as pillow cases, were well filled with this 

 material and sewed up. These pillows were used to good purpose as couch 

 pillows after being sprinkled with some mild disinfectant, like boric acid, 

 dried and then covered with cambric linen. These couch pillows were used for 

 different purposes; first, for very sick persons as rests under the hips and in the 

 small of the back instead of rubber or straw pads; second, as supports or for 

 bolstering up the arms and legs of wounded people, particularly when the limbs 

 were broken; third, they were especially serviceable in hospital trains for rests 

 for the head and neck. 



Moreover, large, absorbing, quilt-like pads made of loose sphagnum, as well 

 as the smaller surgical dressings, were found very valuable in maternity cases. 

 This moss was also used as napkins and diapers for infants and young children. 

 This was also a common practice among our North American Indians. In 

 Alaska they still use it in this way. It was also adopted quite generally by Dr. 

 Walton Haydon during his six years (1878-1884) medical experience at Moose 

 Factory on the Hudson Bay while in the service of the Hudson Bay Company. 



Dressings made of Compressed Sphagnum Moss 



The Germans were very skilful at making sphagnum compresses or paste- 

 board compresses as they were sometimes called. In preparing the moss for 

 this purpose all foreign material was removed and the stems and leaves of the 

 moss more or less broken up or pulverized. These were packed into a frame 

 structure and subjected to a heavy pressure, thus pressing the moss particles 

 into flat cakes resembling cardboard. These compresses were cut into different 

 sized pieces according to the dimensions of the pad needed, wrapped in muslin 

 and sterilized. The compresses were not applied directly to the wound, but 

 usually used as an outer dressing, a thin layer of gauze or cotton being first ap- 

 plied. As one would naturally expect, the compresses were somewhat hard and 

 stiff, but they became soft and pliable after sterilization with steam heat, so 

 that they fitted closely to the body and absorbed excellently. If these dres- 

 sings were large, however, the particles composing them tended to separate, thus 

 making the dressing less effective. To avoid this disintegration it was often ad- 

 visable, after the cardboard had been cut into pieces of desirable size, to sew 

 them into the muslin encasements before sterilization. Dressings made in this 

 way were shown to absorb ten times their weight of fluid. 



Because the surface of these dressings was somewhat hard they were fre- 

 c(uently sprinkled slightly just before application with sterile water, weak solution 

 of sodium chloride or some other mild disinfectant. These compresses were 

 usually placed between pieces of gauze just the same as the cotton compresses 

 were. 



When an extra heavy pressure was applied these compresses became like 

 pasteboard, stiff and hard. Such material was used as splints for binding up 

 broken arms or legs. 



