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A book by Henry Dunant, written in collaboration with Dr. Chéron*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Extract

Henry Dunant, speaking briefly in his memoirs of a visit to a Dr. Chéron in rue Taitbout, Paris, on 4 September 1870, added the following interesting detail: “We had just published a book, under his name, which we wrote together.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1985

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Footnotes

*

This article was published in the “Bulletin de la Société Henry Dunant,” N°. 6, 1981. We reproduce it with the consent of the author and of the publisher, to whom we express our thanks.

References

1 Dunant, Henry, Mémoires, Henry Dunant Institute, Editions L'Age d'Homme, 1971, p. 248 Google Scholar. Henry Dunant's book Un Souvenir de Solferino is available in English translation under the title A Memory of Solferino; the other works mentioned in this article have not been translated into English.

2 Paris, E. Lachaud, Publisher, 1870.

3 Dr. Jules Chéron, born at Perigueux on 3 August 1837, died in Paris on 16 May 1900. Following his medical studies in Bordeaux, he received degrees as doctor of medicine and doctor of science in Paris in 1866. He was appointed to the staff of the Hospital St. Lazare and was a visiting professor of gynaecology at the Ecole Pratique de médecine. He was editor of the Revue médico-chirurgicale des maladies des femmes and author of many scientific publications.

4 Henry Dunant to Marie Dunant, 31 July 1870, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève (hereafter: BPU) Ms. fr. 2115 C, f. 32.

5 “Dr. Chéron, who is never very optimistic, assures me that my share in this affair, my share alone, should easily bring me a net profit of a hundred and twenty thousand francs a year.” Henry Dunant to Marie Dunant, 31 July 1870, BPU Ms. fr. 2115 C, f. 32.

6 Dunant, to Dunant, Marie, 11 09 1870 Google Scholar, BPU, Ms. fr. 2115 C, f. 36.

7 Ibid., 7 April 1870, BPU Ms. fr. 2115 C, f. 27.

8 Ibid., 24 June 1870, BPU Ms. fr. 2115 C, f. 30.

9 See Bulletin non periodique de l'Alliance universelle de l'Ordre et de la Civilisation, Paris, Aux Bureaux de l'Alliance, 1873.Google Scholar

10 Congrès de l'Alliance universelle de l'Ordre et de la Civilisation, Paris, Imprimerie typographique de A. Pougin, 13 quai Voltaire, 1872, p. 24.Google Scholar

11 “Dr. Chéron's book was published the day before yesterday, at a very appropriate moment.” Dunant to Marie Dunant, 31 07 1870, BPU Ms. fr. 2115 C, f. 31.Google Scholar

12 “The verses I send you, my dear Monsieur Dunant, were splendidly interpreted last night at the Théâtre français by Coquelin and Mademoiselle Favart in the benefit performance for the wounded.” ( Manuel, Eugène, Paris, Sunday, 7 08 1870 Google Scholar) cited in the appendix to the work by Muller, Rudolf, Entstehungsgeschichte des Roten Kreuzes und der Genfer Konvention, Stuttgart 1897, p. 417.Google Scholar

13 Dunant, to Manuel, Eugene, 8 08 1870 Google Scholar, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris. Fonds Eugene Manuel; facsimile, BPU.

14 “Will you be able to apply yourself to writing the history of the movement, from the moment you conceived it and brought it into being?” Count Sérurier to Henry Dunant, 1868. BPU, Ms. fr. 2109, f. 350.Google Scholar

15 On this subject, see introduction by Philippe M. Monnier and Roger Durand to the edition of Un Souvenir de Solférino reproduced from the original edition, Henry Dunant Institute-Slatkine Reprints, Geneva 1980, especially pp. xi and xii.

16 Some defective characters and in particular an exclamation point in italic type, occurring in a text set in roman characters (p. 48 of Victimes de la guerre and p. 96 of Souvenir).

17 The last page, apparently printed separately as a single-sheet insert, bears the text of an award to Henry Dunant of a medal by the Société nationale d'encouragement au bien, dated 12 June.

18 At this point, a footnote listed the countries which were either represented at the conference or had announced their support.

19 “He succeeded in interesting the most highly placed persons in Europe in his plan and influential members of their families, statesmen and persons of competence in the most varied fields, and persuaded them to participate in the Geneva Conference by sending delegates.” C. Lueder: La convention de Genève au point de vue historique, critique et dogmatique (The Geneva Convention from the historical, critical and dogmatic points of view). Translated into French by the ICRC, 1876.

20 “This is a work,” wrote, Dunant, “which must be regarded as the golden book and guide for the international movement on behalf of the armed forces on land and at sea” p. 145.Google Scholar

21 Lieut. Col. Alfred Murset, M.D., one of the most loyal supporters of Henry Dunant, was editor of the review Das Rote Kreuz from its inception on 1 01 1894 until 15 03 1898 Google Scholar. Das Rote Kreuz had previously published, in its issues of 1 09, 15 09 and 1 10 1895 Google Scholar, an article on Henry Dunant and the Geneva Convention and later, from 15 October 1895 to 1 May 1896, a 12-part series entitled Die Genfer Konvention (Vereine vom Roten Kreuz), which was also based on texts by Henry Dunant.

22 BPU, Ms. fr. 2093 A, p. 34.

23 Separat-Abdruck aus “Der Samariter”, Zeitschrift für das gesamte Samariterund Rettungswesen, München 1896. Druck und Verlag von Seitz & Schauer. There is a 93-page de luxe edition of this booklet. ICRC Library, 1247.

24 BPU, Ms. fr. 2093 A, pages 116, 129, 100 and 107.

25 Text from the original manuscript, BPU, Ms. fr. 2093 A, p. 129. Part of it was reproduced in Un Souvenir de Solférino, suivi de l'Avenir sanglant. Texts selected and edited by D.C. Mercanton, Henry Dunant Institute, Editions L'Age d'Homme, 1969.

26 This introductory phrase has been translated from German, in the absence of the original text. The quotations which follow it are from the French text.

27 The words “our country” in this quotation refer to Germany. Although this paragraph was not written by Dunant alone, we may at least suppose that he supplied information for it.