'58 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 457 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



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The International Geological Congress in Washington. 



There have been numerous unolBcial accounts of the late Wash- 

 ington meeting of the Geological Congress, but none has yet ap- 

 peared in which the attendance and work performed have been 

 compared with those features of the previous congresses. 



It will be recalled that at the London session of IS'^S the Ameri- 

 can committee was authorized to invite the Congress to meet in 

 America for its next or fifth session. Austria-Hungary had pre- 

 viously had a quasi promise that the fifth session should be held 

 in Vienna, but her representatives at the Loudon session, Mojsiso- 

 vics and Stur, gracefully and generously yielded to the invitation 

 from America. 



From the oflScial minutes of the meeting of the Council on 

 Wednesday, Sept. 19, we learn that M. Frazer presented, on behalf 

 of many scientific societies and of institutions for higher education, 

 the invitation to meet in the United States in 1891. M. von Zittel, 

 Hauchecorne, Stur, Hunt, Capellini, de Lapparent, and Macfarlane 

 warmly seconded this invitation. The former added that the well- 

 known generosity of Americans would make the visit easy. M. , 

 Stur said that the Austro-Hungarian geologists very much desired 

 the congress to be held in Vienna, but after having heard the in- 

 vitation to meet in the United States he would also support this 

 invitation, in the hope that three years later, or in 1894, the con- 

 gress would come to Vienna, when he promised them a warm re- 

 ception. M. Neumayr repeated M. Stur's wish, and hoped that 

 the session of 1894 would be reserved for Vienna. 



The last act of the president of the congress, Professor Prest- 

 wich, was to declare the session closed and adjourned to Philadel- 

 phia in 1891. 



Three years is none too long to get the endless details for a meet- 

 ing of this kind arranged, yet over two years were wasted, and 

 less than twelve available months remained in which to secure the 

 participation of societies and geologists throughout the world, to 

 negotiate special rates of transportation on sea and land, to perfect 

 the plans of visits to mines and distant localities, and, above all, 

 to raise money to entertain the foreign guests in a manner which 



they have lieen taught to understand is the American manner. 

 The result may be gathered by an inspection of the following 

 table, which gives the attendance of members from foreign coun- 

 tries as uell as from the country in which the session was held for 

 each of the five sessions. It should be noted that there are no 

 official statistics giving the number enrolled separately from the 

 number which attended the first or Paris session. The "N" in 

 the first horizontal line below the name of the city indicates 

 natives of the country where the session was held ; the ' ■ F " stands 

 for foreigners. 



Argentina 



Australia 



Austria-Hungary. . 



Belgium 



Bulgaria 



Brazil 



ChUl 



Canada 



Denmark 



Egypt 



France 



Germany 



Great Britain 



Holland 



India 



Italy 



Mexico 



Norway 



New Zealand 



Portugal 



Peru 



Poland 



Roumania 



Russia 



Sweden 



Switzerland 



Spain 



United States 



Percentage of for- 

 eigners 



Paris 



1878 



Bologna 

 1881 



Berlin 



1885 



London 



ltS8 



N. 16S I 

 F. 97 



Washington 

 1891 



It appears from the table, which has been compiled from the 

 official reports of the first four sessions, and from the report of 

 the Washington session published in the American Geologist, that 

 the last or American session was distinguished, fii'st, for the 

 smallest aggregate attendance of participants; second, for the 

 smallest number of native participants; third, for the smallest 

 number of foreign participants; fourth, for the smallest proportion 

 of foreign to total participants. 



How far the American participants represented the geologists of 

 the country it is difficult to say, but of the six who were accredited 

 to Philadelphia, one was a professor of physics in the University 

 of Pennsylvania, one was a physician and mineral dealer, two 

 were young mining and geological engineers, one was an amateur 

 mineralogist, and the sixth was a professor of geology. 



But the difference in the character of this from all previous 

 sessions of the International Geological Congress becomes apparent 

 when we examine the lists of the foreign visitors. Of men like 



