AveustT 30, 1918] 
war broke out that it became extensively em- 
ployed as a modern surgical dressing. 
Shortly after the war was declared in 1914, 
Dr. C. W. Cathcart, an Edinburgh surgeon 
and a lieutenant-colonel in the medical corps 
of the British army, began experimenting with 
‘sphagnum in one of the Scottish hospitals. 
The first published account of these experi- 
ments, together with the general account of 
the moss as a surgical dressing, appeared in 
the Scotsman of November, 1914.2. Dr. Cath- 
eart then formed an organization for collect- 
ing and preparing the peat moss for surgical 
pads in Edinburgh. This was the first organi- 
zation formed for this purpose among the 
allied nations. In September, 1915, a second 
one was established in the south of Ireland by 
the Marchioness of Waterford. The work 
thus begun was so promising that new organi- 
zations sprang up all over Scotland and Ive- 
land under the War Dressing Supply Organi- 
zation in Edinburgh, and the Irish War Hos- 
pital Supply Depot in Dublin. During this 
experimental stage there was considerable op- 
position to this kind of surgical pad, but as 
time went on and the method of making the 
dressings was improved, this opposition dis- 
appeared and in February, 1916, the British 
War Office accepted them as “ official” dress- 
ings. With this recognition and organization 
the work rapidly increased, so that during the 
summer of 1918 the sphagnum pads produced 
by Great Britain are numbered in the millions 
per month, Scotland alone being asked to sup- 
ply 4,000,000 sphagnum dressings a month. 
In America the sphagnum work on a large 
scale, has been more recent. During the sum- 
mer of 1916, Dr. J. B. Porter, of McGill Uni- 
versity, became interested in peat moss for 
surgical dressings. Samples were collected in 
eastern Canada, especially in Nova Scotia, and 
sent to Britain for approval. It was late in 
the season before definite reports could be ob- 
2Charles W. Catheart and I. Bayley Balfour, 
‘*Bog Moss for Surgical Dressings,’’ The Scots- 
man, No, 17, 1914. 
8 John B. Porter, ‘‘Sphagnum Surgical Dress- 
ings,’’ International Journal of Surgery, May, 
1917. 
SCIENCE 205 
tained from these samples, so little was done 
before the bogs were frozen. 
In the spring and summer of 1917 this work 
was continued by the Canadian Red Cross un- 
der the direction of Dr. Porter. Although no 
very large number of dressings was made, yet 
the organization was extended and perfected, 
and the bogs containing the desirable moss lo- 
cated, so that if the demand became more 
urgent the production of this kind of dressing 
could be readily pushed. This demand came 
in January, 1918, in the form of an order from 
the British War Office, for 20,000,000 sphag- 
num surgical dressings. The Canadian Red 
Cross is thus doing extensive work along this 
line during 1918. 
After the United States entered the war 
more interest was taken in this work by Amer- 
icans but it was not until March 1, 1918, that 
sphagnum was officially recognized by the 
National Red Cross of America. At that 
time a preliminary order for 50,000 pads was 
given to the Seattle Chapter and these have 
been made on the campus of the University 
of Washington under the direction of the 
writer. 
The faculty of the University of Washing- 
ton, feeling the importance of this phase of 
War Emergency work and wishing to assist in 
completing as rapidly as possible this large 
allotment of pads, voted to require all women 
of the first and second years of the university 
to register for two hours a week for moss work 
during the spring quarter. The request for 
this work came originally from the women 
themselves through the dean of women. They 
felt that since the men were required to de- 
vote eight hours a week to military drill with- 
out university credit, the women also should 
do some definite war work under university 
supervision. 
COLLECTING AND SORTING 
Before beginning the collection of sphagnum 
one should know exactly what is needed. 
There are over forty species of this moss in 
America of which only four (S. imbricatum, 
S. palustre, S. papillosum and 8. magillani- 
cum) are at present used for surgical dress- 
