H.Y.City, Feb. 20, 1915 
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, 
The Pan-American Scientific Congress 
A T a time when scientific solidarity has been so 
seriously impaired in the Old World as a result of 
the European war it is gratifying to note that prepa- 
rations are afoot for bringing the scientific men of the 
New into closer and more friendly relations. The first 
much-needed step in this direction was taken at the end 
of the year 1908, when the first Pan-American Scientific 
Congress assembled at Santiago, Chile. The second 
congress is to meet in Washington next October, and 
the plans for it have been formulated by a committee 
headed by Mr. William Phillips, Third Assistant Secre- 
tary of State, the other members being the Director 
General of the Pan-American Union; the IJ. S. Oommis- * 
sioner of Education; the Surgeon General of the U. S. 
Army; Mr. G. M. Rommel of the Department of Agri- 
culture; Mr. William H. Holmes of the Smithsonian 
Institution; Prof. L. S. Rowe, University of Pennsyl- 
vania ; and Dr. J. B. Scott of the Carnegie Peace En- 
dowment. 
The congress is to be organized in eight sections, as 
follows : 1. Anthropology. 2. Astronomy, meteorology, 
and seismology. 3. Conservation of natural resources; 
agriculture; irrigation and forestry. 4. Education. 5. 
Engineering, transportation, and commerce. 6. Interna- 
tional law, public law, and jurisprudence. 7. Mining 
and metallurgy, economic geology, and applied chem- 
istry. 8. Public health, medicine. 
If the history of the last congress repeats itself, the 
forthcoming meeting will be an event of exceptional in- 
terest, from both a scientific and a political point of 
view. At Santiago delegations attended from eight 
North and Central American countries, including the 
United States, and from nine South American coun- 
tries, and an imposing list of papers was presented, 
more than fifty of which emanated from this country. 
The President of Chile attended the opening session, 
held an official reception for the delegates, and enter- 
tained all of the latter at dinner, a limited number 
being invited each day during the congress. Other en- 
tertainments, official and unofficial, were overwhelming 
in number. 
