Feat and its Products. 
765 
however, as to the amount which is produced and brought to 
market, nor is any mention made of it in the Government 
statistics of foreign trade. 
Peat dust, or “ mull,” has an extraordinary power of 
deodorising foul-smelling substances, and this, combined with 
its great capacity for absorbing liquids, suggested its use as a 
disinfectant. The application of peat refuse for disinfecting 
purposes was strongly recommended by Dr. Scharlau, of Stettin, 
as early as 1850, and a similar practice was known in Norway 
more than thirty years ago, being even made compulsory in the 
town of Christiania. Experiments made in the hospitals at 
Kiel with peat dust for antiseptic 1 bandages produced good 
results. These bandages were applied in a large number of 
cases of slight wounds, cuts, and sores. Mull was also used in 
more serious operations with complete success. 
It is held that, although peat dust does not actually destroy 
pathogenic ( i.e . disease-producing) germs, it has the property 
of retarding the multiplication of lower organisms, and this has 
led to its extensive use in many German towns for earth closets, 
public latrines, slaughter-houses, &c. 
In sugar factories peat mull has been found of great use for 
the purpose of absorbing the lye resulting from the treatment of 
the molasses with strontia. It is forbidden to drain this liquid 
into the rivers, and it consequently presented a difficulty until 
mull was employed, when it was found that 25 parts of mull 
would absorb 100 parts of lye, and yield a valuable aud easily 
portable manure. 
Mull is further employed in association with salts used in 
powder as chemical manure, for the purpose of preventing their 
hardening into lumps. An addition of 24 per cent, of mull to 
the salt is found sufficient for this purpose. In the salt works 
(“ Kalisalzwerke ”) at Stassfurth, 4 lb. of mull are mixed with 
each sack of 2 cwt. of the salt. 
Moss peat and mull are also used with excellent results as 
1 From the treacherous nature of their surface, peat mosses have frequently 
been the receptacles for bodies of men and animals that ventured upon them. 
As peat possesses great antiseptic power, these remains are usually in a state 
of excellent preservation. In Ireland the remains of the extinct large Irish 
elk (Megaceros Hibernicvs') have been dug up from many of the bogs. Human 
weapons, tools, and ornaments have been recovered abundantly from peat mosses • 
likewise crannoges, or pile dwellings (constructed in the original lakes that 
preceded the mosses), and canoes hollowed out of single trees. Text-book of 
Geology. By Sir Archibald Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S., p. 460. 
Wild animals venturing on the more treacherous watery parts of peat 
bogs are sometimes engulfed or “laired.” The antiseptic qualities of the 
peat preserve their remains from decay. Hence from European peat mosses 
numerous remains of deer and oxen have been exhumed. Ibid. p. 605. 
