GENERAL REPORT 



UPON THE 



FINAL ACT. 



Prepared by Mr. JAMES BROWN SCOTT, Reporter General, in behalf and In the name of the 

 Executive Committee of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress. 



The Executive Committee of the Congress was composed of the following: His Excellency Sr. EDUARDO 

 SUAREZ MUJICA. President; JOHN BARRETT, Secretary General; JAMES BROWN SCOTT, Reporter Gen- 

 eral; GLEN LEVIN SWIGGETT, Assistan^Secretary General; HENRY RALPH RINGS, Recording Sec- 

 retary; Argentina, ERNESTO QUESADA; Bolivia, ALBERTO GUTIERREZ; Brazil, DOMICIO DA GAMA; 

 Chile, JULIO PHILIPPI; Colombia. CARLOS CUERVO MARQUEZ; Costa Rica, EDUARDO J. PINTO; Cuba, 

 CARLOS MANUEL DE CESPEDES; Dominican Republic, CARLOS ARMANDO PERDOMO; Ecuador, VICTOR 

 MANUEL PENAHERRERA; Guatemala, JOAQUiN^MENDEz; Haiti, CHARLES MATHON; Honduras^ 

 CARLOS ALBERTO UCLES; Mexico, MANUEL GAMIO; Nicaragua, DAMASO RIVAS; Panama, EUSEBIO 

 MORALES; Paraguay, EUSEBIO AYALA; Peru, ALEJANDRO DEUSTUA; Salvador, RAFAEL ZALDIVAR; 

 United States of America, GEORGE GRAY: Uruguay, CARLOS MARIA DE PENA; Venezuela, JOSE L. 

 ANDARA. 



Pursuant to a recommendation of the First Pan American Scientific 

 Congress, which met at Santiago, Chile, December 25, iQoS-January 5, 

 1909, that the next Congress should be held in the United States, the 

 Second Pan American Scientific Congress convened in the city of Wash- 

 ington on the 27th day of December, 1915, and remained in session until 

 the 8th day of January, 1916, when it adjourned after having completed 

 its arduous and its valuable labors. 1 



It would seem from the name that the Second Congress had had but 

 one predecessor, but this, while technically true, is not the case in point 

 of fact. And yet in a certain sense it may be called the first, because 

 its immediate predecessor, which met in Chile, was in the nature of an 

 experiment, which succeeded so admirably that another Congress, which 

 it is hoped will be a link in an endless chain, was determined upon to 

 meet in the Capital of the United States. 



The Congress that met at Santiago was not the first scientific body in 

 which the republics to the south of the United States were represented. 

 It was, however, the first in which the United States was asked to par- 

 ticipate. One had met in Buenos Aires in 1898, a second at Montevideo 

 in 1901, and a third four years later at Rio de Janeiro. But the United 



1 See Appendix III, p. 163. 



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