28 
House & Garden 
EXPLORING the BOGS for SURGICAL MOSS 
Sphagnum is found, in bogs — good, wet bogs, 
the kind where pitcher plants and cran¬ 
berries and stunted little evergreens grow, 
where the surface has a velvety carpet of 
moss 
Sphagnum, A Moss of Remarkable 
Absorptive Powers, Is Needed for 
Surgical Dressings—How to 
Collect and Prepare It 
DR. GEORGE F. NICHOLS. 
Botanical Adviser on Sphagnum, American Red Cross 
D O you know the whereabouts of a good, 
wet bog or marsh ? 
The kind where pitcher plants and cran¬ 
berries and stunted little evergreens are grow¬ 
ing? _ • 
That quakes and trembles as your feet sink 
into its velvety carpet of moss? 
Where you are in constant fear lest you break 
through the thin surface crust into the miry 
depths beneath? 
If so, explore it. It may prove a valuable 
mine of material to aid our nurses and surgeons 
in alleviating the suffering and re¬ 
storing to health our wounded sol¬ 
diers and sailors. 
The ore of this mine is the moss 
called sphagnum. These little 
plants love the water. Their tiny 
leaves are like sponges and are 
never satisfied unless saturated. 
Pull up a handful, squeeze it, and 
note how the water pours out of 
it. When you have pressed out 
all the moisture you can, put it 
back into the water and watch 
how quickly it fills up again. You 
may dry it in the wind and sun ■ 
until it is dead and brittle, but | 
you cannot destroy its thirst. 
Its War Use 
The moss is cured in drying frames of cheesecloth raised 
from the ground and set up in a spot u'here there is good 
air circulation 
charges from wounds are intentionally stimulated very 
materially. Hence absorptive dressings in unlimited 
quantities are indispensable. 
The use of sphagnum for this purpose is not new; it 
represents merely another instance of the revival with 
modern improvements of an old-time practice. From time 
immemorial bog moss has been used locally in the home 
treatment of boils and discharging wounds. The early 
Britons are known to have used it for exactly the same 
purposes it is being utilized today. 
It is due to this remarkable ab¬ 
sorptive power together with its 
lightness and softness when dry, 
that sphagnum is proving of such 
value in war hospital practice. No 
other material seems so well 
adapted for taking up and retain¬ 
ing the discharge from wounds, 
and it is to be remembered that 
under conditions prevailing in 
war, discharging wounds are the 
rule, not the exception. Indeed, 
with the Carrel method which has 
proved so successful, the dis- 
Of the varieties < 
sphagnum the thr 
middle Specimens a 
the best 
In making a sphag¬ 
num dressing the 
moss forms the 
foundation layer 
Moss vs. Cotton 
In the progress of events, how¬ 
ever, moss had given place to cot¬ 
ton for surgical purposes and ex¬ 
cept for the war would doubtless 
nave remained in obscurity. A 
time of stress and emergency, with 
a shortage of absorbent cotton im¬ 
pending, found in the bogs and 
moors of the British Isles an ac¬ 
ceptable substitute. 
Not for long did sphagnum re¬ 
main in the substitute class; it 
soon won a place on its own 
merits. For certain purposes it is 
preferable to absorbent cotton, and 
as experience has shown how to 
overcome its objectionable fea¬ 
tures its use is being extended. 
The chief advantage of sphagnum over cotton 
is that it absorbs liquids more rapidly and will 
keep on absorbing and distributing until the 
entire dressing is saturated throughout. Cotton, 
on the other hand, is more local in its absorptive 
power and a dressing made from it will ordi¬ 
narily cease to act long before its theoretical 
capacity has been attained. In the case of cotton 
and gauze the liquid is merely held between the 
fibers and clinging to their surfaces, but in the 
case of the sphagnum it enters into the myriad 
of tiny receptacles in the leaves, which seem to 
have been designed by Nature expressly for tak¬ 
ing up and storing liquid. When moderately 
