THE BRYOLOGIST 
Vol. XXI July, 1918 No. 4 
WAR WORK FOR BRYOLOGISTS 1 
George E. Nichols 
Until quite recently, sphagnum has not been generally considered as pos- 
sessing any particular economic value, except in connection with the formation 
of peat, where its importance is well recognized. To be sure, it is used quite 
extensively by florists and nurserymen as packing material for plants, and lo- 
cally it is employed for stable litter and bedding, as well as for various other 
purposes. But its value in surgical work, while recognized many years ago in 
Germany, has been little appreciated outside of that country, and it is only 
recently that this phase has ccme into prominence. At the present time sphag- 
num is being used to a vast extent, particularly by the British Red Cross, in 
place of absorbent cotton in surgical dressings. According to Professor Hotson, 2 
the present British output of sphagnum dressings amounts to a million per 
month. And while the sphagnum was advocated primarily as a war substitute, 
there is little question that it will retain a permanent position as a standard 
material for absorbent surgical dressings. 
For use in absorbent pads, the sphagnum is not merely equal to absorbent 
cotton — it is superior to it. According to Professor Porter, 3 sphagnum pads 
surpass cotton pads in the following important particulars: (1) they absorb 
liquids much more rapidly: about three times as fast; (2) they take up liquids 
in much greater amounts: a cotton pad will absorb only five or six times its 
weight of water, as compared with sixteen, eighteen, and even as high as twenty- 
two times, for a sphagnum pad; (3) they retain liquids much better: which means, 
of course, that the dressings need be changed less frequently; (4) they distribute 
the absorbed liquids more uniformly throughout their mass; (5) they are cooler 
and less irritating, yet at the same time fully as soft; (6) they can be produced 
at much less expense. 
The structural peculiarities of the sphagnum plant, which enable it to take 
up and retain liquids, are, of course, familiar to all moss students and require 
only brief comment. Suffice it to say that whereas in a cotton pad liquids for 
the most part are merely held within a tangle of threads, in the sphagnum we 
have a highly efficient absorbing system. The ability of the sphagnum in this 
respect can be attributed to three features: (1) the presence of the large, color- 
1 Contribution from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. 
2 Hotson, J. W. Sphagnum as a surgical dressing. 1-31. /. 1-18. Northwest Division of 
the American Red Cross. Seattle. 1918. 
3 Porter, J. B. Sphagnum surgical dressings. Internat. Journ. Surgery 30 : 129-135. /. 1-8. 
1917. Distributed as a separate by the Canadian Red Cross. 
The May number of The Bryologist was published July 30, 1918. 
