When the men wrote an article in the “Science and Nature” section of The Scotsman extolling the moss’s medicinal virtues, they noted that it was already widely used in Germany.īut desperate times called for desperate measures. palustre, both of which grew in abundance across Scotland, Ireland and England. In the war's early days, eminent botanist Isaac Bayley Balfour and military surgeon Charles Walker Cathcart identified two species in particular that worked best for staunching bleeding and helping wounds heal: S.

But it wasn’t until World War I that medical experts realized the plant's full potential. It continued to be used sporadically when battles erupted, including during the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian wars. Moss was also used by Native Americans, who lined their children’s cradles and carriers with it as a type of natural diaper. In ancient times, Gaelic-Irish sources wrote that warriors in the battle of Clontarf used moss to pack their wounds. But humans have also used it for at least 1,000 years to help heal their injuries. Today, this tiny, star-shaped plant is known for its use in horticulture and biofuel, not to mention its starring role in preserving thousands-year-old 'bog bodies' like the Tollund Man, which Smithsonian Magazine revisited last month. Also known as sphagnum, peat moss thrives in cold, damp climates like those of the British Isles and northern Germany. What were the Allied Powers to do? A Scottish surgeon-and-botanist duo had an idea: stuff the wounds full of moss. But in the end, there simply wasn’t enough cotton-a substance that was already in high demand for uniforms and its recently discovered use as an explosive-to go around. They tried everything from irrigating the wounds with chlorine solutions to creating bandages infused with carbolic acid, formaldehyde or mercury chloride, with varying degrees of success. And by December 1915, a British report warned that the thousands of wounded men were threatening to exhaust the material for bandages.ĭesperate to get their hands on something sterile that would keep wounds clear of infection, doctors started getting creative. Watson Cheyne of the Royal College of Surgeons of England noted with horror the “ great prevalence of sepsis,” the potentially life-threatening response triggered by a bad infection. In the last months of 1914, doctors like Sir. The First World War had just begun, and already the wounds were rotting on the battlefield.

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