RED 



RED CROSS 



603 



relieve*! from the penalties of realisation by the 

 Toleration Act of 1 Will, and Mary, chap. 18. 

 Catholics were partially relieved in the year 1791, 

 and completely by the Emancipation Act of 1829. 



Red. Most of the important red pigments 

 have been already noticed. For carmine and 

 crimson lake prepared from cochineal, and also 

 for the madder reds, see LAKES. The reds of 

 which oxide of iron is the colouring ingredient 

 viz. Indian red, Venetian red, and light red are 

 referred to under OCHRES. Vermilion (q.v.) is 

 one of the finest and most beautiful reds. It has 

 now been ascertained, however, that it is not 

 always (juite so permanent, at least as a water- 

 colour pigment, as was formerly supposed. For 

 house-painters' use this colour is often adulterated 

 with red lead, which, though forming a useful 

 paint for some common purposes, is fugitive. The 

 substances used for dyeing textile fabrics red are 

 noticed under the head DYEING. 



Redun. See FORTIFICATION, SEBASTOPOL. 



Redbreast ( Erythaca rubecula ), a bird of the 

 family Sylviida-, well known in the British Isles 

 because of its very general distribution, its early 

 and legendary associations, its conspicuous plumage, 

 and the fact of its being resident. Its ran^e is 

 gradually extending northwards, and now it is 

 found breeding in the Hebrides and Orkneys; in 

 spring it is found oti the island of Jan Maycn, in 

 autumn it visits the Faroes, but it has not yet 

 been recorded in Iceland. Southwards it breeds 

 throughout Europe (but only locally in the south 

 of Spain), in North-west Africa and the Canaries, 

 Madeira, and the Azores ; eastwards to the Ural 

 Mountains. In winter its migrations extend to the 

 JSaliara, Egypt, Palestine, and Persia. The red- 

 breast, known familiarly as Kobin or Robin Red- 

 breast, is aliout 5f inches long, olive-brown in 

 colour on the upper parts ; chin, throat, and upper 

 breast reddish orange, liordered with bluish gray on 

 the sides of the neck and shoulders ; under parts 

 dull white ; bill black ; legs and feet brown ; the 

 body fairly full and round, the legs slender. The 

 female is usually but not always duller than the 

 male. In habit robins are domineering and pug- 

 nacious ; solitary, or found only in pairs, preferring 

 plantations, but coining near dwelling-houses when 

 forced by severe weather. Nesting begins in March. 

 The nest of dead leaves, dried grass and moss, and 

 lined with hair and feathers, is made in banks, 

 hollow trees, and sometimes in strange and extra- 

 ordinary places. The eggs, five to seven, are 

 usually white with light reddish blotches, or pure 

 white. Two or three broods are produced in the 

 season. In autumn the young are forced by their 

 parents to migrate, and at this season there is 

 generally a great inllux of robins from the northern 

 parts of the Continent, where they have lieen pan- 

 ing the summer. The food consists chief! v of insects 

 and worms ; often of lierries and other fruits ; and 

 in winter bread-crumbs and scraps of meat. Its 

 song is sweet and plaintive, but of little compass, 

 and not much noticed when other songsters al>ouiid. 

 The widely distributed robin of the United States 

 and Canada is a Thrush ( Turdus migratorius). 



Redcar, a popular bathing-resort in the North 

 Riding of Yorkshire, 10 miles by rail NE. of 

 Middlesltorough. Its smooth, firm sands stretch 10 

 miles from the mouth of the Tees to Saltburn. 

 Pop. ( 1851 ) 1032 ; ( 1891 ) 2818. 



Red C'edar. See JUNIPER. 



Red Crag. See PLIOCENE SYSTEM. 



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 privi- 

 leges 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 reduc- 

 ing the losses by one-half, threw light upon shock- 

 ing 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 tne 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 sani- 

 tary service by volunteer societies trained and 

 organised in time of peace. The book was dis- 

 cussed at Geneva at a meeting of the Societt 

 Genevoise d'Utilite 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, 

 Octol>er 26, 1863, and included among its thirty- 

 six im'inl>ers delegates from fourteen governments 

 and six associations. A proposed code of inter- 

 national enactments was discussed, and the main 

 recommendations agreed to were (1) the forma- 

 tion 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 com- 

 mittees ; (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, emlHxlying these resolutions was signed 

 at a second conference at Geneva in 1864 by twelve 

 ont 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 resolu- 

 tions passed at Geneva have not been materially 

 altered. The International Committee still con- 

 tinues at Geneva, as a centre of communication 

 between belligerent states, facilitating 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 Societe de 

 Secours aux Militaires Blesses, the Russian Johan- 

 niter, and the Austrian Samariter Verein are among 

 the best known of the numerous Red Cross socie- 

 ties. The Red Cross Society in the United States, 

 since June 6, 1900, is organised under a charter 

 granted by congress. The International Com- 

 mittee at Geneva publishes quarterly, since 1869, 

 the Bulletin International des Societes de la Croix 

 Unnrje. See also The Red Cross: Its Past and 



