APPENDIX VI. 



Report of Delp^gate to the Fifth Intkkxatioxai, Zooi.ociicAL 

 Congress, Berlin, August 12-It;, 1'.H>1. 



I'n.f. S. P. Langley, 



Srcrcfarji, S'inil]isoiil<ni Tiixtilnllon. 



Dear Sir: I havt> tlie lioiior to sulmiit herewitli a ])v\vi acroiiiit nt' my vinit to tlic 

 Fifth International Zooloirical t'on;.q-css at Ik-rlin, to whicli, on .Inly 1">, IHOI, yon 

 appointed me a delegate to represent the Smithsonian Institution and the I'nited 

 States National IVInsenm. 



The congress was opened on Angnst 12 and lasted until August 10, when the dele- 

 gates and mem1)ers adjourned to attend the reception given in their honor hy the 

 High Senate of Hand)nrg. The 17tli was spent in Ilanihnrg ins])e('ting the zoological 

 collections there, and on August 18 and 19 most of the nunnhers visited the Marine 

 Biological Station on Heligoland. Having urgent business at the Hand)urg Natur- 

 historisches Museum, I remained there instead of going to Heligoland. 



The congress was in every respei't a success. Not only was the attendance (about 

 750 members) greater than at any previous congress, but the standard of the scientific 

 papers and discussions was unexcelled. I need only refer to the lectures by Prof. 

 G. B. Grassi (Rome) on the malaria prol)lem from a zoological standpoint, Prof. 

 Yves Delage (Paris) on the theories of fecundation, Professor Biitschli (Heidelberg) 

 on vitalismus and mechanismus, and Professor Branco (Berlin) on fossil remains 

 of man. 



One of the main factors of this success was the unexampled interest in the con- 

 gress displayed by th('(i('rman ( iovernment. A large sum of money was placed at 

 the disposition of the local committee l)v the Government, and the German Crown 

 Prince, as the high protector of the congress, was only prevented from opening the 

 congress in person by the death of his grandmother, the dowager Emj)ress Friedrich, 

 a few days previ<nis. The c( mgress was lavishly entertained by the cities of Beiliii and 

 Hamburg, as well as l)y the Zoological Society of Berlin. P>ut the most extraordi- 

 nary proof of the ])ublic interest in the congress was probably the fact that tiie entire 

 " Reichstagsgebaiide," the magniticent house of the Glerman I'arliament, was placed 

 at the disposition of the Congress for its meetings, lectures, etc. Thus all the general 

 sessions were held in the great "Plenarsitzungssaal" of the Parliament. The Emperor 

 himself, though prevented from receiving the members oflicially on account of the 

 death of his mother, took occasion to greet them informally. 



The more special object of my joining the congress was to take part in the delib- 

 erations and decisions of tiie connnittee on zoological nomenclature, of whicli I had 

 been elected a mendjerat the congress in Cambridge in 1898. The work of the com- 

 mittee, which met before the congress opened and continui'd for some time alter its 

 close, occupied so mucli of the time of the members that the meetings of the sections 

 had to be neglected. I was thus prevented from reading a paper on the Herpetology 

 of Porto Rico, which had Invn announced, but was able to act as one of the vice- 

 presidents at the second general session. The work in this I'ommittee on nomencla- 

 ture was, on the whole, eminentlv satisfactory from the standpoint of American 



if.r 



