THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
NOVEMBER,  1897. 
INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESSES. 
By  Prof.  Toseph  P.  Remington,  Philadelphia. 
A  great  deal  of  misconception  evidently  exists  in  the  minds  of 
many  upon  the  objects  and  aims  of  international  congresses  of 
various  kinds. 
This  is  not  only  the  case  in  relation  to  pharmaceutical  conferences, 
but  medical  and  professional  international  gatherings  of  all  kinds. 
The  absence  of  a  universal  language  must  always  continue  to  be  the 
principal  bar  to  effective  intercourse  between  representatives  of 
mixed  nationalities,  and  the  larger  the  attendance  at  a  congress  the 
greater  becomes  the  babel  of  tongues,  with  its  necessary  confusion. 
The  International  Medical  Congress  at  Moscow  had  an  immense  at- 
tendance, a  very  large  number  of  papers  were  read  of  unequal 
value  and  although  the  Russian  Government  provided  most  liberally 
for  the  entertainment  of  the  delegates,  it  was  found  impossible  to 
send  invitations  to  each  member  for  every  official  function.  This 
necessarily  produced  heart  burnings  which  even  Russian  diplomacy 
could  not  entirely  soothe. 
The  International  Pharmaceutical  Congress,  which  met  at  Brus- 
sels, has  been  criticised  by  a  German  editor  in  America,  who  found 
fault  with  it,  for  "  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  not  a  German  word 
was  heard  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Congress,"  and  "  because  the 
subjects  on  the  programme  were  principally  of  interest  to  Belgium, 
and  almost  exclusively  presented  from  the  Belgium  standpoint,"  and 
the  writer  consequently  argues  "  that  it  could  not  be  international 
(553) 
