Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
September,  1911.  J 
Standard  Surgical  Dressings. 
421 
For  the  most  part  the  so-called  manufacturers  of  surgical  gauze 
purchase  their  supplies  of  woven  gauze,  gray  or  bleached,  from 
the  various  mills  of  New  England.  These  mills  supply  some  nine- 
teen grades,  beginning  with  a  gauze  carrying  twenty  threads  by 
ten,  or  thirty  threads  per  square  inch. 
It  should  be  noted  that  very  little  if  any  surgical  gauze  in  the 
market  is  fully  thirty-six  inches  in  width.  This  is  accounted  for 
by  the  fact  that  these  goods  are  woven  in  the  gray  thirty-six  inches 
wide,  and  it  is  not  practicable  to  bleach  the  goods,  render  them 
absorbent,  and  retain  their  full  width.  The  usual  variation  is 
about  one  inch  per  yard ;  in  other  words,  the  average  width  will  be 
found  to  be  about  thirty-five  inches. 
The  following  table  shows  the  threads  per  inch,  the  average 
yardage  per  pound  of  the  best  known  grades  of  surgical  gauze : 
Surgical  Gauze. 
Threads  per  inch.  Yards  per  pound. 
44  X  40  9-38 
32x36  '  14.81 
28  X  24  16.00 
24  X  20  18.83 
20  X  14  23.20 
The  National  Formulary  (First  Edition),  adopted  as  a  standard 
two  brands,  Lehigh  E.  and  Stillwater.  These  grades  (now  practi- 
cally out  of  market)  contained  about  sixty-four  threads  per  square 
inch,  and  their  weight  was  a  little  less  than  800  grains  to  the  square 
yard. 
The  nearest  approach  to  a  standardization  of  plain  surgical 
gauze  is  one  which  I  understand  has  been  adopted  by  the  Bureau 
of  Municipal  Research,  which  bureau  is  making  an  attempt  to 
secure  uniformity  in  the  supplies  for  the  various  departments  of 
New  York  City. 
In  respect  to  gauze  the  requirements  are  that  the  gauze  shall 
count  in  the  finished  state  not  less  tiian  the  total  number  of  threads 
per  square  inch  specified,  shall  not  exceed  the  yardage  per  pound 
specified ;  it  shall  be  free  from  loading,  and  shall  be  acceptable 
by  the  bureau  as  first  quality  in  every  respect.  Gauze  delivered 
under  these  specifications  is  required  to  be  made  from  clean,  white, 
