[The civil ambulances during the Franc-Prussion war (July 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871)]

The civil ambulances joined together under the emblem of the Red Cross: the Company of Help to the Wounded Soldiers, directed from the Palate of Industry by Chenu and Le Fort; the Ambulance of the Press, directed by Ricord and Mgr Bailer; and multiple ambulances disseminated in Paris. They brought a decisive help to the French medical military Corps. On the ground, eigtheen civil Ambulances from Countryside formed in Paris looked after the casualties of the two camps: around Sedan, then in the battles of the Loire and the East, where 13 ambulances formed secondarily in province joined them. During the siege of Paris, flying Ambulances went out the ramparts and brought back the wounded to the Palate of Industry or to Longchamp 'street Press ambulancy. They were integrated in November in a great Coordination of 10 hospitals distributors, directed by Hippolyte Larrey. The surgical care, limited to the members, to the head and the neck, were simple, rapids and conservatives, and the number of amputations was limited. But secondary infectious complications were frequent, had a raised mortality, worsened by the associated diseases, infectious (smallpox, typhoid, pneumonia, and by the cold, hunger, denutrition. The war of 1870-1871 brought: a large humane progress due to the neutralization of the casualties, places and actors of care; a better approach of the infection and shown the need for an autonomy of the French Military Corps.