52 FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 



that they have resulted rather in restraining than in advancing properly 

 qualified research. 



ARTICLE 2. The Second Pan American Scientific Congress requests the 

 Government of the United States to bring to the attention of the 

 Governments of the American Republics participating in the 

 Congress and, through their respective Governments, to the 

 institutions and the public thereof, the importance of promoting 

 research in the field of archaeology, organized surveys for the 

 study of primitive tribes, and the building of national educational 

 museums for the preservation of the data and materials collected. 



In various parts of the American Continent there are remnants of the 

 aboriginal population, a study of which would be of great importance to 

 science. As is to be expected, many of these remnants are very im- 

 perfectly known and are rapidly disappearing because of a lack of interest 

 and of proper supervision, and yet properly made and preserved collec- 

 tions, ethnological and physical, are admittedly among the most precious 

 scientific and educational assets of a nation. 



These observations, of a very general kind, will find ready acceptance, 

 but unless it be made the duty of some Government to take the initiative, 

 it is to be feared that the present unsatisfactory condition of affairs will 

 continue to exist. Therefore the Congress decided to invest the Govern- 

 ment of the country in which the Congress met, in this instance the 

 United States, with the duty of calling these very important matters to 

 the attention of the other Governments participating in the Congress, to 

 the end that steps be 'taken while there is still time to regulate archaeo- 

 logical exploration by just laws and to preserve the records of times past 

 and of primitive races to future generations. 



It often happens that the resolutions of a Congress or of a section 

 thereof give but a very imperfect and inadequate idea of the value of 

 the proceedings. This is peculiarly the case of the section devoted to 

 archaeology, which restricted itself to the minimum of action on the 

 part of the Governments and refrained from proposing resolutions and 

 recommendations on matters of general interest even although they 

 would tend to show the nature and scope of the proceedings. For this 

 reason it seems desirable that a few paragraphs be devoted to a more 

 general consideration of the subject and of the discussions which actually 

 took place in the section. 



Anthropology is properly defined as the Science of Man. It seeks to 

 find out and to place upon record all that can be known of the history 



