[or Henri]. French physician, famous as the originator of the Red Cross Society. The horror and despair with which he contemplated the terrible scenes that attended or immediately succeeded the battle of Solferino, June 24, 1859, led him to write the book Un Souvenir de Solferino, published in 1862, in which was popularized the idea of such a society as now exists under the name of the Red Cross Society for the care of the wounded and sick in battle. He was long baffled in his endeavors in this direction, but he was at length rewarded by the conclusion, in August 1863, of the Geneva convention, and the institution of the Red Cross Society. Delegates were present from Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Hanover, Hesse-Darmstadt, Italy, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Saxony, Sweden, Switzerland and Würtemberg. The work of the society was first brought into operation during the Franco-Prussian war.
