8 e p t ember, 1918 
29 
dry, the light, porous and resilient nature of the 
moss gives to a dressing a degree of coolness 
and freedom from irritation not possible with 
other material. 
The British Output 
Small wonder then for the war-time popu¬ 
larity of sphagnum moss! The British are turn¬ 
ing out sphagnum surgical dressings at the rate 
of a million every month, five times as many 
as last year and nearly ten times as many as the 
years before that. And compare these figures 
with a total of only 250 in September, 1915! 
Last year Canada began an inventory of her 
moss resources and submitted specimens of her 
products. To-day the Canadian Red Cross is 
busily engaged in filling a requisition of the 
British War Office for twenty millions of 
sphagnum dressings. 
The American Red Cross has recently ex¬ 
tended its activities to this field and the work 
already is well under way. One of the most 
urgent problems at the present time is the loca¬ 
tion of places where desirable material can be 
secured without too great labor or expense. A 
number of good sites have been found, but there 
is need for more moss than these alone will 
furnish. Information is wanted regarding the 
location, size, and accessibility of every bog in 
the country which contains the right kind of 
sphagnum. No one knows what the future 
holds in store and it is the part of wisdom to be 
prepared. There is unlimited opportunity for 
exploration. 
The Kinds of Sphagnum 
At the very outset it cannot be emphasized 
too strongly that there are a great many differ¬ 
ent kinds of sphagnum native to North /Amer¬ 
ica. Even among the botanists there are very 
few who can distinguish all of them. More¬ 
over, the same species will exhibit a wide range 
of variation in response to different conditions 
of growth. 
The requirements of surgical moss are exact¬ 
ing and only the choice material of a few species 
measures up to the standard. This calls for 
discrimination in the collection of material, but 
this becomes a fairly simple matter when the 
requirements are understood and particularly 
if the collector or prospector is provided with 
Assay samples of sphagnum moss should be 
sent to the following addresses: 
American material in the East to Dr. George 
F. Nichols, Yale University, New Haven, 
Conn.; in the West, to Professor J. W. Hotson, 
University of Washington, Seattle. 
Canadian material to Dr. John B. Porter, 
McGill University, Montreal. 
a standard sample for purposes of comparison. 
The first step is to locate a bog. A bog dif¬ 
fers in many ways from an ordinary marshy 
place. It is usually poorly drained and may 
be simply a depression partly filled with water 
and with no outlet whatever. Commonly there 
is free water in the middle and the margins are 
overgrown with a layer of vegetation, perhaps 
a mere crust of matted plants over deep water 
and oozy swamp-muck. Such bogs should be 
explored with caution and it is well not to enter 
them alone as there is more or less danger of 
breaking through. Bogs are rather rare and 
small in most sections of the United States and 
those with suitable sphagnum are for the most 
part restricted to the cool, moist regions of the 
North. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
bogs are very extensive and some of them build 
up great mound-like accumulations on flat 
ground. 
Having located a bog, the next thing is to 
determine the quality of the sphagnum. The 
best material will be found in the wettest places, 
as there conditions are most favorable for the 
development of compact leafy plants. The 
more robust forms with close-set tufts of 
branches and abundant leafage are far superior 
in absorptive capacity to the more slender forms 
with scattered branch clusters and scanty leaf¬ 
age. Again it is desirable that the material 
should be soft and flexible but at the same time 
possessed of a certain amount of toughness and 
resilience. The kinds to avoid are the coarse, 
stringy forms and those with brittle stems or 
harsh texture. 
Samples and Data 
Should promising material be located in 
what seems to be sufficient quantity to warrant 
its collection, the next step is to secure a gen¬ 
erous sample for assay purposes, as it were. 
This should be submitted for examination to 
someone qualified to pass judgment on its sur¬ 
gical value. Before mailing the material, spread 
it out in some shady spot and let it air-dry until 
the bulk of the moisture has evaporated. Then, 
before it has become so dry as to be brittle, 
wrap it up in newspaper and mark the package 
plainly. The sample should be accompanied 
by a letter containing accurate and full in¬ 
formation as to its source, and the extent and 
accessibility of the supply. 
What the Red Cross wants just now, then, is 
information. But the field to be covered is 
vast and the number of those who may be re¬ 
garded as experts on sphagnum is altogether 
too small to permit their attempting to explore 
it in person. Furthermore, the matter of ex¬ 
pense is one which must not be lost sight of. 
In very large measure the success of the sphag- 
(Continued on page 62) 
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