REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL. 1 7 



partment the desirability of organizing the next Pan American Scientific 

 Congress in the form of a series of international conferences, of which a 

 list will be submitted in due time. 



THE SECTIONS AND GENERAL PROGRAM. 



The permanent executive committee of the congress prepared and 

 published in the spring of 191 5 a preliminary program. This program 

 contained the rules and regulations in respect to organization, member- 

 ship in the congress and presentation of papers, and the topics, stated in 

 general terms, that were proposed for discussion in the nine sections. 

 These rules and topics may be found printed in the report on the Final 

 Act,^ English edition, pages 17-26 and 155-158. The executive com- 

 mittee distinctly expressed the hope in the preliminary program that the 

 Second Pan American Scientific Congress might partake of the charac- 

 ter of a series of international conferences, and requested all writers of 

 papers to concentrate attention upon those questions which would be of 

 greatest interest to all American Republics. The nine main sections of 

 the program of the congress, with the names of the chairman in charge 

 of each section, were as follows: 



I. Anthropology, William H. Holmes. 



II. Astronomy, Meteorology, and Seismology, Robert S. 

 Woodward. 



III. Conservation of Natural Resources, Agriculture, Irrigation, 



and Forestry, George M. Rommel. 



IV. Education, P. P. Claxton. 

 V. Engineering, W. H. Bixby. 



VI. International Law, PubHc Law, and Jurisprudence, James 



Brown Scott. 

 VII. Mining and Metallurgy, Economic Geology, and Applied 



Chemistry, Hennen Jennings. 

 VIII. Public Health and Medical Science, WilHam C. Gorgas. 

 IX. Transportation, Commerce, Finance, and Taxation, L. S. 

 Rowe. 

 The chairmen of these sections were assisted in the preparation of 

 this general program by distinguished men of science, representing the 

 scientific bureaus of the Government and scientific societies. Valuable 

 services were rendered in this respect particularly by representatives of 

 the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Insti- 



' Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, 1916. 



