‎GUILLERY Dr. :‎
‎Compte Rendu Raisonné de L' Assainissement du Champ de Bataille de Sedan et de la Partie de la Meuse qui le traverse.‎

‎.: Bruxelles, Imprimerie et Lithographie de E. Guyot, rue de Pacheco, 1871, in-8°, 66 pp + folding map of the battle field. Bound in black cloth with gilt title and blind decorations on the front cover. All edges gilt. Spine with a tear of ca. 6 cm but no loss of material. Small repair with adhesive tape of a tear in the map. Still a good/fine copy. With a manuscript ex- dono of the author to '' A son Excellence, Monsieur J. Jooris, chargé d'affaires de sa Majesté le Roi des Belges à Madrid, hommage très respectueux de l'auteur''. Rare report of a belgian sanitary effort to clean up the battle field of Sedan. At the Sedan battle of 1st September 1870 emperor Napoleon lost his empire when he was defeated by the Germans. The battle left 20.000 soldiers killed and many thousand dead horses. They were inadequately buried , many in the Meuse river bed, and posed a serious health problem in the following months. Belgium was a neutral country in this conflict. The river Meuse passed its territory so it had an interest in the cleaning up. But this effort is also a testimony of the growing international concern, which started already 11 years earlier at Solferino, about he devastating effects of modern warfare.‎

Reference : 45608

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