152 FINAL ACT OF SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS. 



Dr. MANUEL VICENTE VILLARAN, Lima; and Dr. ALEJANDRO 

 DEUSTUA, Lima, to constitute the Committee for the organi- 

 zation of the Third Pan American Scientific Congress. 



The Congress neither has its headquarters nor does it meet in any one 

 particular country, and each Congress determines both the time and the 

 place of the meeting of its successor. Thus the First Pan American 

 Scientific Congress, which met at Santiago, Chile, December 25, 1908, to 

 January 5, 1909, determined that the Second Congress should meet five 

 years later and in the city of Washington. Circumstances unnecessary 

 to mention caused the postponement of the Congress, but when it met 

 it met at Washington in accordance with the recommendation of its 

 predecessor. 



The present Congress decided, upon the motion of the Chilean delegation, 

 that the Third Congress meet in 1921 at Lima, in the Republic of Peru, OH 

 the hundredth anniversary of the independence thereof. While it is true 

 that the Congress recommends the meeting place of its successor, it must 

 be understood that the recommendation is only made with the consent 

 of the country in which it is proposed that the Congress shall next meet, 

 for inasmuch as each of the American Republics is an equal and sove- 

 reign country, it is for each to determine by and for itself what shall or 

 shall not take place within its territory. The Government of the country 

 in which it is proposed that the Congress should meet is sounded, and 

 upon its acceptance the recommendation is made, but as it is both a com- 

 pliment and an honor to act as host to the Congress, the request is in 

 the nature of a formality. The holding of a Congress, however, involves 

 much time and thought, patience and devotion, on the part of the Gov - 

 eminent and people of the country in which it is to meet, and it is the 

 custom at the time of the recommendation and its acceptance for the 

 Congress to appoint a committee on preliminaries, to take charge of the 

 organization of the Congress, and for this reason the members thereof are 

 chosen from the country in which the next Congress is to meet, in this case 

 Peru, upon the recommendation of the Peruvian authorities. In the 

 present instance the gentlemen whose names appear in the article were 

 chosen to form the nucleus of the Executive or Preparatory Committee, 

 whose other members will be appointed by themselves or by the Gov- 

 ernment of Peru to arrange the preliminaries of the Congress and, after 

 its adjournment, to publish its proceedings and to take such action as in 

 the premises may seem necessary. Upon the meeting of the Congress 

 its president and other officers are chosen, an Executive Committee of 

 the Congress, composed of its members, is selected to take charge thereof 



