War was declared\u00a0on August 3, 1914. That same day, the \u201cAmbulance Committee\u201d of the American Hospital of Paris met to discuss the management of\u00a0an \u201cambulance\u201d (the term for a French military hospital). \u00a0Under the title \u201cThe American Ambulance of Paris\u201d, this facility would function under the auspices of the American Hospital to provide care of those wounded in battle. \u00a0 \u00a0Also in attendance was American Ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick. \u00a0 Initially, the committee suggested setting up tents in the garden of the American Hospital, but Herrick and the French government arranged for the Lyc\u00e9e Pasteur, a boys high school under construction in Neuilly-sur-Seine, to be converted to a 1600-bed military hospital. Application to the board of the Lyc\u00e9e Pasteur met with resistance, owing to the fact that \u00a0the school would soon be in session. \u00a0With encouragement \u00a0from the French government, the board approved the offer on August 12 and the hospital received its first patients, soldiers wounded in the battle of the Marne, on September 7, 1914.<\/p>\n
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