Although the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field has today only symbolic significance, its spirit lives still in the Conventions that were subsequently elaborated. It played, indeed, a capital role in the development of international humanitarian law and, in view of that fact, it may be appropriate to indicate in what way it exerted an influence that became increasingly stronger and that made itself quickly felt on the laws of various countries.