Ferdinando Palasciano (1815
- 1891) was a physician whose work is considered
crucial to having helped lay the foundations of the
International Red Cross. He was born in Capua, then
part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (also known
as the Kingdom of Naples).
Palasciano
graduated in Literature and Philosophy, Veterinary
Science and, finally, in Medicine and Surgery. He
served as a doctor in the Bourbon army and was witness
to a number of harsh regime tactics against early
revolutionaries at the beginning of the Risorgimento, the
decades-long series of wars to unify the peninsula
into a single Italy. His work during the government
campaign against rebels in Messina in 1848 led him to
utter a phrase that summed up his entire career and
one that served to inspire those who later founded the
Red Cross and who drew up various versions of
so-called "Rules of War" to embody a set of
humanitarian principles: "The wounded, whatever army
they belong to, are sacred to me and cannot be
considered as enemies." That particular sentiment
landed Palasciano in trouble with the Bourbon military
commanders of the day, who had ordered their medics
not to treat rebels. Palasciano was sentenced to death
for insubordination, but his sentence was commuted by
King Ferdinand II, and
Palasciano spent one year in prison.
In
the weeks following the annexation of the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies and the declaration of a united Italy
in 1861, the Accademia
Pontoniana, a Neapolitan association of
scholars, held a meeting at which Palasciano further
declared:
When nations declare
war against one another, they need to commit
themselves to the principle that those wounded in
battle thereby become neutral; nations need further
to commit themselves to unlimited increase in
medical personel for the duration of hostilities.
That found such
resonance throughout Europe that the Enciclopedia Universale
Rizzoli-Larousse (vol. IV, p. 680, entry "Croce
Rossa internazionale") later said that "The origins
of the [Red Cross] can be traced back to Ferdinando
Palasciano." (This in no way diminishes the work
of Jean-Henri Dunant, who witnessed the savagery of the
battle of Solferino in June of 1859, part of the Second
Italian War of Independence; that episode led him to
write A Memory of
Solferino, which inspired the creation of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863.
In 1901 Dunant received the first Nobel Peace Prize,
together with Frédéric Passy.)
In 1865 Palasciano was
appointed professor of Surgical Chemistry at the
University of Naples, and in 1883 he was among the
founders of the Italian Surgical Society. He was
also a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
and Senate. Around 1886 Palasciano developed
dementia. He died in 1891 and was buried at Poggioreale Cemetery,
Naples. He was later remembered in WWI through the
presence of an Italian hospital ship named for
him.