May 8, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



755 



selves into the twenty-five departments, of 

 which the sixteen theoretical ones meet in 

 sixteen different halls on Tuesday morning, 

 and the nine practical, on Tuesday afternoon. 

 In the following four days the departments 

 are split up into the sections; the seventy-one 

 theoretical sections meeting on Wednesday, 

 Thursday, Friday, Saturday, about eighteen 

 each morning in eighteen halls, and the fifty- 

 nine practical sections on the same days in 

 the afternoons, the arrangement being so made 

 that sections of the same department meet as 

 far as possible on different days, every one 

 thus being able to attend in the last four days 

 of the first week the meetings of eight differ- 

 ent sections, four theoretical and four prac- 

 tical ones, in the narrower circle of his inter- 

 ests. In the second week a free sub-division 

 of the sections is expected, and, moreover, a 

 number of important independent congresses, 

 as, for instance, an international medical con- 

 gress, an international legal congress, and 

 others, are foreseen for the following days. 

 These independent congresses will highly profit 

 from the presence of all the leading American 

 and foreign scholars, whose coming to St. 

 Louis will be secured by the liberal arrange- 

 ments of the official congress in the first week; 

 on the other hand, these free congresses repre- 

 sent indeed the logical continuation of the 

 set work of the first seven days, as they most 

 clearly indicate the further branching out of 

 our official sections, leading over to the special- 

 ized work of the individual scholars. And yet 

 this second week's work must be, as viewed 

 from the standpoint of our official congress, 

 an external addition, inasmuch as its papers 

 and discussions will be free independent con- 

 tributions not included in the one complete 

 plan of the first week, in which every paper 

 will correspond to a definite request. The 

 official congress will thus come to an end with 

 the first week, and we shall indicate it by 

 putting the last section of the last department, 

 a section on religious influence in civilization, 

 on Sunday morning, when it will not be, like 

 all the others on the foregoing days, in com- 

 petition with fifteen other sections, and may 

 thus again combine the widest interests. In 



this section there will be room also for the 

 closing exercises of the official occasion. 



The arrangement of the sciences in days and 

 halls is however merely an external aspect. 

 We must finally ask for the definite content. 

 Our purpose was to bring out the unity of all 

 this scattered scientific work of our time, to 

 make living in the world the consciousness 

 of inner unity in the specialized work of the 

 millions spread over the globe. The purpose 

 was not to do over again what is. daily done 

 in the regular work at home. We desired an 

 hour of repose, an introspective thought, a 

 holiday sentiment, to give new strength and 

 courage, and, above all, new dignity to the 

 plodding toil of the scientist. Superficial re- 

 petitions for popular information in the Chau- 

 tauqua style and specialistic contributions like 

 the papers in the issues of the latest scientific 

 magazines would be thus alike unfit for our 

 task. The topics which we need must be 

 those which bring out the interrelation of the 

 sciences as parts of the whole; the organic 

 development out of the past; the necessary 

 tendencies of to-day; the different aspects of 

 the common conceptions ; and the result is the 

 following plan: 



We start with the three introductory ad- 

 dresses on ' Scientific Work,' on the ' Unity of 

 Theoretical Knowledge,' and on the ' Unity of 

 Practical Knowledge,' delivered by the presi- 

 dent and the two vice-presidents. After that 

 the real work of the congress begins with a 

 branching out of the seven divisions. In each 

 one of them the topic is fundamental concep- 

 tions. Then we resolve ourselves into the 

 twenty-five departments, and in each one the 

 same two leading addresses will be delivered; 

 one on the development of the department 

 during the last hundred years, and one on its 

 methods. From here the twenty-five depart- 

 ments pass to their sectional work, and in 

 each of the one hundred and thirty sections 

 again two set addresses will be provided; one 

 on the relations of the section to the other 

 sciences, one on the problems of to-day; and 

 only from here does the work move during 

 the second week into the usual channels of 

 special discussions. We have thus during the 



