FOREWORD. 



The present volume contains the Final Act of the Second Pan American 

 Scientific Congress, adopted on January 8, 1916, and signed the same day 

 by the official delegates authorized thereto by the twenty-one American 

 Republics participating in the Congress. The Final Act is therefore 

 official in the highest degree. 



This important document, it will be observed, is accompanied by an 

 interpretative commentary or general report discussing the origin and 

 nature of the Congress, outlining its methods of procedure, explaining 

 the resolutions and recommendations contained in the Final Act, and 

 stating the sense in which they were understood and accepted by the 

 Congress. The commentary has been prepared by Mr. JAMES BROWN 

 SCOTT, as reporter general, appointed by the Executive Committee of 

 the United States and the Executive Committee of the Congress to 

 prepare in its name and in its behalf the general report of the scientific 

 labors of the Congress. 



The volume contains, in addition, the program as finally carried out, 

 the list of scientific institutions, associations, learned societies partici- 

 pating in the Congress, and the lists of names of all persons invited to 

 take part in the proceedings. It is believed that the preparation and 

 the publication of the Final Act and the interpretative commentary at 

 this early date, long before the proceedings, which will fill many volumes, 

 can be issued, will not only make clear the important results reached 

 by the Congress, but will also sustain the interest in it and its proceed- 

 ings, which can only be confirmed by the publication of the proceedings 

 in their entirety. 



Mr. ScoTT asks me to thank the Chairmen of the nine Sections of the 

 Congress, the Assistant Secretary General, Dr. GLEN LEVIN SWIGGETT, 

 and the Recording Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Con- 

 gress, HENRY RALPH RINGE, Esq., for their invaluable assistance in the 

 preparation of the commentary and of the documents which are con- 

 tained in the present volume. 



JOHN BARRETT, 



Secretary General. 

 WASHINGTON, D. C., 

 February 28, 1916. 



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