Red Cross, THE, is the badge and flag adopted by every society, of whatever nation, formed for the aid of the sick and wounded in time of war, recognised and authorised by the military author- ities of its own nation, and enjoying certain privileges and immunities under the treaty known as the Convention of Geneva. Hence 'Red Cross Society' has become a generic name for all such voluntary efforts, and cannot be monopolised by any one of them. For three centuries or more a medical service has been attached to armies, and was long thought sufficient for every emergency, but the revelations made during the Crimean war (1853-56) were terrible. The merciful mission of Miss Nightingale and her companions, while reducing the losses by one-half, threw light upon shocking defects, and compelled the acknowledgment of want of organisation in everything connected with the health of the troops and care for the wounded. Nevertheless, when the war broke out (1859) in Lombardy similar inefficiency was apparent. Loud complaints arose, but the first practical result ensued from the publication by M. Dunant of his Souvenir de Solferino. The account of this battle (June 24, 1859), which lasted fifteen hours and in which 300,000 combatants were engaged, was so heart-rending as to force public attention to the necessity for supplementing the medical and sanitary service by volunteer societies trained and organised in time of peace. The book was discussed at Geneva at a meeting of the Société Génève d'Utilité Publique, February 9, 1863, a date which may be taken as the starting-point of the Red Cross. An international conference was then convoked, which assembled at Geneva, October 26, 1863, and included among its thirty-six members delegates from fourteen governments and six associations. A proposed code of international enactments was discussed, and the main recommendations agreed to were (1) the formation in each country of a committee to co-operate with the army sanitary service in communication with the government, and occupying itself in time of peace with preparing supplies of hospital stores, training nurses, &c., and during wars furnishing the same in aid of their respective armies, neutral nations being invited to assist such national committees; (2) the declaration of the neutrality of hospitals, of the officials of the sanitary service, of the unpaid nurses, of the inhabitants of the country aiding the wounded, and even of the wounded themselves. The conference suggested the adoption of the same distinctive and uniform badge (the red cross on a white ground) for all hospitals and sanitary officials as well as for the volunteer relief agents. A treaty, the Convention of Geneva, embodying these resolutions was signed at a second conference at Geneva in 1864 by twelve out of sixteen representatives there assembled, and it has since been acceded to by every civilised nation. International conferences have been held at Paris (when the convention was extended to naval warfare), Berlin, and Vienna, but the resolutions passed at Geneva have undergone no material alteration. The International Committee still continues at Geneva, for though its pioneering work is over it forms an important centre of communication between belligerent states, and appoints agencies whenever war is declared, to facilitate the action of the different societies and the transmission of relief offered by neutrals. The English Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War, the Eastern War Sick and Wounded Relief Fund, the Stafford House Fund, the French Société de Secours aux Militaires Blessés, the Russian Johanniter, and the Austrian Samariter Verein are among the best known of the numerous Red Cross societies. The International Committee at Geneva publishes quarterly, since 1869, the Bulletin International des Sociétés de la Croix Rouge. See also The Red Cross: Its Past and
Future, by G. Moynier (trans. by J. Furley, 1883), a Red Cross knight of the foremost rank, having been the first to enter Paris with provisions, and having received for his many and great services the gold medal from the committee at Versailles, and decorations from the various French Red Cross societies, which contains the text of the Convention of Geneva; Under the Red Cross, by Pearson and McLaughlin; Notes and Recollections, by W. McCormack. See AMBULANCE.