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Théodore Maunoir one of the founders of the Red Cross
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2010
Abstract
International Review of the Red Cross is pleased to bring to its readers' attention an article on Dr. Théodore Maunoir, one of the five founders of the Red Cross, about whom little is known and little has been written.
The article is from the pen of Mr. Roger Durand, President of the Henry Dunant Society, Geneva, who published it recently in Gesnerus, the quarterly review of the Société suisse d'histoire de la médecine et des sciences naturelles (vol. 34, fasc. 1/2, pp. 139–155, Ed. Sauerländer, Aarau, 1977). It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author, of Gesnerus and of Editions Sauerländer, to whom we express our thanks.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 18 , Issue 204 , June 1978 , pp. 137 - 154
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1978
References
page 138 note 1 We should clarify a matter of terminology at the outset. In the interest of simplicity, we shall consistently refer to the “Red Cross”, even though the various organisms from which the movement developed did not use the term for several years. For example, the present “International Committee of the Red Cross” (or for short the International Committee) existed from 1863 onwards under the name “Comité international de Secours aux Blessés” and only adopted its present title in 1880.
page 139 note 1 The bibliography includes the following: Duval, André Jacob, “Notice sur le docteur Théodore Maunoir” in the Bulletin de la Société médicate de la Suisse romande, 10 1869, pp. 322–336 Google Scholar; Piachaud, Docteur Louis, Rapport du président sur les travaux de la Société midicale de Genève pendant l'année 1869, lu dans la séance du 5 Janvier 1870, Lausanne (L. Corbaz) 1870, 22 pp., especially pp. 1–12Google Scholar; François, Alexis, Le berceau de la Croix-Rouge, Geneva (A. Jullien) 1918, 336 pp.Google Scholar; François, Alexis, Les fondateurs de la Croix Rouge, Geneva (Kundig) 1941, 21 pp.Google Scholar; Cramer, Marc, Ils étaient cinq… Naissance de la Croix-Rouge, Geneva (Eglise nationale protestante de Genève) 1963, 35 pp.Google Scholar
page 140 note 1 We may refer for example to Erwin H. Ackerknecht's “ Les membres genevois de la ‘Société médicale d'observation’ de Paris (1832)” in Gesnerus, op. cit., vol. 34, fasc. 1/2, 1977, pp. 90–97 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pp. 92–93. The author refers to studies of the same subject by Eduard-Rudolf Müllener.
page 141 note 1 André, Louis, L'assassinat de Paul-Louis Courrier, Paris (Plon Nourrit) 1913 Google Scholar, and the summary of this work published in the Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, October–December, 1913.
Married at the age of 18 to a writer old enough to be her father, Herminie Clavier was soon betrayed and abandoned. In 1825, Courrier was murdered. The murder was unsolved. Four years later, a farmer's daughter gave information involving the widow. In January 1830, Herminie was arrested, discharged and duly freed of all suspicion. In April of the same year, she gave birth to Théodore's first son.
The affair created a scandal, spoken of by Sainte-Beuve in his Causeries du lundi, Paris (Garnier) s.d., t. 6, pp. 322–361 Google Scholar; 26 July and 2 August 1852. Alfred de Vigny referred to Théodore Maunoir as the “successor to Paul-Louis Courrier, in flesh as in spirit”, in his “ Lettres à une puritaine” in the Revue de Paris, 15 08 and 15 09 1897, pp. 299–320, especially p. 313.Google Scholar
page 141 note 2 We have been unable to find in the official records either the date of the civil marriage of Herminie and Théodore or the birth certificate identifying the father of Charles Maunoir, born on 23 June 1830 at Poggibonsi, in Tuscany.
Although the census of 1834 lists Théodore as a bachelor, the birth certificate for Paul (21 June 1835) proves that the marriage had already taken place. The legal marriage must therefore have been performed Sometime between the beginning of 1834 and June 1835, even though the indication provided by the census records must not be regarded as infallible.
Was Theodore Charles' father? In his will (Geneva State Archives, Jur. Civ. AAq, 14, No. 190, p. 201–202)Google Scholar—he stated that his two eldest sons—Charles and Paul— should be treated in the same way as the three children of his second marriage and that “It goes without saying that neither I nor my two eldest sons have any claim at all to my [second] wife's wealth”.
Although we cannot regard it as certain, we shall accept as a supposition that Théodore had a son, Charles, in 1830, at a time when he was not yet married to the child's mother.
page 142 note 1 Maunoir, Théodore, Essai sur quelques points de l'histoire de la cataracte; thèse présentée et soutenue à la Faculté de la Médecine de Paris, le 12 décembre 1833, Paris (Didot) 1833, 96 pp.Google Scholar
page 142 note 2 These reports, sometimes in the form of notes without references, have been put together in a book entitled Theodore Maunoir, bearing the reference M. 349 of the Science Museum in Geneva. See also note 2, p. 154.
On the subject of a book on nursing by Florence Nightingale who British authors too often regard as the fountainhead of the Red Cross, Maunoir said, “The general tone of her book indicates decisiveness, familiarity with command and action; but however capable one may be on the battlefield, every captain is not a Caesar when it comes to taking his pen in hand, and we believe Miss Nightingale would have been well advised not to write her Commentaries.”
page 143 note 1 La guerre et la charité by Gustave Moynier and Louis Appia; report in “Journal de Genève”, 3 04 1868.Google Scholar
page 143 note 2 Piachaud, Doctor, Rapport du président, op. cit., p. 10–11.Google Scholar
page 144 note 1 Letters from Maunoir to Lullin, H., one dated 20 10 [1846]Google Scholar and the other undated; Bibliothèque publique et universitaire (BPU), Ms suppl. 928, p. 214–215.Google Scholar
page 144 note 2 See his letter to François Bartholony, dated October 1863, BPU Ms var. 19/3, p. 19–20.Google Scholar
page 145 note 1 See Boppe, Roger, L'homme et la guerre. Le docteur Louis Appia et les débuts de la Croix-Rouge. Geneva/Paris (J. Muhlethaler) 1959, 235 pp., especially pp. 30–37.Google Scholar
page 146 note 1 This Congress did not take place. However, an international statistical congress did take place in Berlin and Dunant and Basting took advantage of it to make known the International Committee's proposal and—without consulting the Committee—the key idea of neutral status for medical personnel.
page 146 note 2 Minutes of the Genevese Society for Public Utility, in record covering the period from 13 11 1851 to 15 04 1863 Google Scholar, no reference, Société genevoise d'utilité publique, palais de l'Athénée, Geneva.
page 147 note 1 See minutes of International Committee for Relief to Wounded Soldiers published by Jean Pictet under the title “Documents inédits sur la formation de la Croix-Rouge”, in Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, 12 1948, p. 861–87Google Scholar
page 148 note 1 Minutes of the International Conference in Geneva to examine ways and means to remedy the inadequacy of military medical services in the field; see Bulletin de la société genevoise d'utilité publique, vol. 3, years 1862 and 1863 Google Scholar, Geneva (Imprimerie de Jules-Gme Fick) 1862 [sic], 698 pp., see particularly pp. 349 to 494 and p. 422. These pages should in fact bear the numbers 549 to 694.
page 148 note 2 Id., p. 422.
page 148 note 3 Id., p. 423.
page 149 note 1 Id., p. 414.
page 149 note 2 Id., p. 423.
page 149 note 3 Id., p. 423.
page 150 note 1 See Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, 12 1948, op. cit., pp. 877–878, especially p. 877: “Séance de la Section Genevoise du 17 Mars 1864”.Google Scholar
page 151 note 1 Minutes of the Committee from 6 Sept. 1867 to 12 Sept. 1870 Google Scholar, International Committee of the Red Cross, unclassified. We are grateful to the Vice-President of the ICRC, Mr. Jean Pictet, for permission to consult and quote these documents.
page 153 note 1 Id., meeting of 19 May 1869.
page 153 note 2 October 1869, pp. 7–8.
page 153 note 3 The minutes give here the following note: “The report is in Secours aux blessés. International Committee, Geneva, 1864”. Cf. note 2, p. 154.
page 154 note 1 Op. cit., p. 331. Cf. supra, note 1, p. 139.
page 154 note 2 Note sur l'æuvre des comités de secours aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique, in “Secours aux blessés. Communication du Comité international faisant suite au compte rendu de la Conférence Internationale de Genève”, Geneva, Jules-Guillaume Fick, 1864, 218 [219] pp., plates, especially p. 179–187.
In this note, Maunoir reviews five studies on relief to the wounded during the Secession war. While praising the considerable resources and effort of the US medical commission (North), he deplores that neutralization of the wounded and of the medical personnel was unknown in America. It was a concept about which the young and dynamic America could learn from the Geneva Committee and from the example of all Europe.