The Academy Bookman

311 The Academy Bookman HENRI DUNANT AND THE RED CROSS* SALLIE MORGENSTERN Curator, Rare Book and History of Medicine Collections The New York Academy of Medicine New York, New York ON June 24, 1859, during the short and bloody battle between Austria and the small Italian state of Piemonte, Henri Dunant, a rich patrician banker and philanthropist from Geneva travelled to Solferino to submit to Napoleon III a great industrial project for Algiers. By pure chance, he happened to see the battlefield with its thousands of dead and wounded. He forgot his projects and his millions. Two feelings over- whelmed him: horror of war and an ardent wish to help. It was there, on the battlefield of Solferino, that Dunant conceived the idea of the Red Cross. Out of his heart came the simple, spontaneous words that were to express the innermost spirit and sustaining idea of the Red Cross: "Tutti fratelli!" "We all are brothers!" Hundreds of wounded who had taken refuge in the main church in the village of Castiglione were fighting for a little straw to lie upon. As Dunant was passing, several Austrian soldiers were thrown down the church steps. "Oh, no! Don't do that. We are all brothers!" he cried. The wounded, the peasants, and the women looked with astonishment at the man who had just given the commandment of humanity. From that moment help came from every side and people no longer differentiated between friend and foe. The words, "We are all brothers, " born in one man's compassionate heart, subsequently became one of the basic points at the Geneva Convention, where, in Article 6, one reads, "Officers, soldiers and other persons officially attached to armies, who are sick and wounded shall be respected and cared for without distinction of nationality by the belligerent in whose power they are." Henri Dunant's business trip failed because the meeting with Napoleon Part II of a two-part article. Part I appeared in the November 1979 issue of The Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. Vol. 57, No. 4, May 1981 S. MORGENSTERN 312 312S. MORGENSTERN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ III he had hoped to arrange did not take place. Back in Paris, he resumed his struggle to gain approval for his business venture. Two years went by as he proceeded from one governmental antechamber to another. During this time he was haunted by memories of Castiglione. Those horrors pursued him, and he could not rid himself of the thought that something must be done to cut down the loss of the wounded. Then, carried away by his inspiration, he wrote Un Souvenir de Solferino. The book appeared in 1862. It described in an extremely clear and gripping way his experiences on that battlefield, and at the same time set forth his suggestions for an international organization to alleviate the suffering caused by war. The book was a tremendous success and pro- duced immediate results. Bringing to a climax earlier discussions in military and humanitarian circles of 19th century Europe, Dunant's sug- gested solution soon aroused the attention and concern of Europe. Milita- rists, pacifists, charitable women, cabinet ministers, and princes recog- nized its importance. Victor Hugo endorsed Dunant's "noble efforts with enthusiasm." Ernest Renan, the French philosopher, termed it "the great- est work of the century." The Goncourt brothers, France's most influential social critics, wrote that "A Memory ofSolferino is a thousand times more beautiful than Homer. One finishes this book by damning war." Charles Dickens devoted an article in his weekly All the Year Round to the "Man in White." Only French military leaders viewed Dunant's ideas with suspicion. Though only a small edition was initially printed for private use, demand for the book was so great that a second edition was called for within one month. It appeared in December 1862 simultaneously in Geneva, Turin, St. Petersburg, and Leipzig. Translations into German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, and English followed. Even more important was the reception accorded to Un Souvenir de Solferino in Geneva itself. Shortly after the appearance of the book in 1862, Gustave Moynier (1826-1910), a noted philanthropist, visited Dunant to tell him how moved he had been by Un Souvenir de Solferino. Offering his assistance, Moynier inquired what plans Dunant had to turn his inspiration into reality. Though they possessed qualities which were complimentary in certain respects, fundamental differences between Moynier and Dunant were evident from the first. Dunant was personal and emotional, Moynier was detached and cool. It was not surprising that they had never much understood one another, yet Dunant and Moynier Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. HENRI DUNANT 313 made an effective, if not a harmonious team. Together they created a unique organization for the benefit of all mankind. In 1862 Moynier was 36 years old, of a positive and practical turn of mind, and a strong character. He had studied law, but, on the edge of a legal career, he realized that he was not really interested in it. He searched for an occupation in which his skills had some chance of being useful. The subject that drew him most strongly was the problem of improving the conditions of the working classes. Moynier became a member of various international philanthropic committees, and attended their meet- ings in Paris, Brussels, Frankfort, and London, giving addresses on philanthropy considered as a mathematical problem. He was a founder of the Swiss Statistical Society, and was deeply absorbed in the study of social problems. One of his many activities consisted in presiding over the Geneva Public Welfare Society. It was Moynier who translated Dunant's ideas into real action. Initially, Dunant wanted to start the movement from Paris, which he considered the center of the world. However, upon the advice of Moynier, Dunant began the campaign for his ideas in Geneva. To this end, Moynier proposed to bring the whole matter before the Geneva Society for Public Welfare (Societe d'Utilite Publique). Moynier was as good as his word, and Dunant's book was discussed by the society in 1863. Founded in 1828, the Geneva Society for Public Welfare was com- prised of the aristocracy of that town. Known as much for its learning as for its charitableness, in 1863 the Society had 180 members and was managed by a central committee. In the beginning the group showed no great enthusiasm for Dunant's ideas. One member voiced serious doubts that an organization depending on volunteers to help the wounded could "arouse the energy or the enthusiasm of the people." But Moynier was not to be put off. He advised the society's members to support the idea, and urged the society to consider presenting Dunant's suggestions at its forthcoming congress to be held in Berlin in September. As a result of Moynier's efforts, a special committee of five members was appointed for further study of the entire matter. Ten days later the committee of five first met. In addition to Moynier and Dunant, its members included: General Dufour, commander-in-chief of the Army of the Swiss Confederation; Dr. Louis Appia, deeply interested in military surgery; and Dr. Theodore Maunoir, a well-known and respected Genevan practitioner. Vol. 57, No. 4, May 1981 314 S. MORGENSTERN Dufour (1787-1875), the oldest and best known of the committee, was made chairman. Like Moynier, Dufour found his true profession only after a false start. Disappointed with his medical studies, he switched to an engineering school in Paris and continued his education at the military college in Metz. He fought in the Napoleonic Wars of France, and after Bonaparte's downfall, became a Swiss citizen. In Geneva he served in his dual capacity as an engineer and soldier. Besides being a lieutenant colonel in the Geneva militia and a captain in the Swiss Federal Army, he helped alter the face of Geneva with bridges and quays of his own design. In 1847 Dufour led the Federal Army in putting down an uprising by seven predominantly Catholic Swiss cantons, the Sonderbund, in an almost bloodless war. Dufour's handling of the delicate threat to Swiss unity won him acclaim throughout Europe and the admiration of generals abroad. His prestige and patronage were most valuable to a committee whose purpose was so closely related to questions of military organization. Theodore Maunoir (1806-1869), Genevan by birth and nephew of the well-known Dr. Jean-Pierre Maunoir, studied medicine in England and in France where he was graduated in 1833. During his stay in France, he was a cofounder of the Societe Medicale d'Observation. By 1860 he had become chief surgeon in the Geneva hospital and served on the board of health and the public hygiene and sanitation commission. He was a close friend of Louis Appia, and, like Appia, was a first-rate surgeon. A man of intelligence and charm, Maunoir was a vital addition to the committee because of his background in medicine and his judgment and wit. Dr. Louis Appia (1818-1898), the fifth member of the committee, was born in Germany of Swiss parents and studied medicine at Heidelberg and Paris. He chose Geneva as his home in 1849. Influenced by his studies of the Crimean War, he was keenly interested in the whole question of the treatment of wounds, and had engaged in special research on gunshot wounds. Like Dunant, he took an active part in the care of the wounded during the Italian campaign in 1859 and later in the hospitals of Brescia, Milan, and Turin. He was the first physician to offer his services in a civilian capacity to a foreign army and the first to urge the people in Geneva in May 1859 to start collections for the wounded.

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