EDITORIAL COMMENT 321

THE PAN -AM ERICAN  SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS

The Second Pan-American Scientific Congress met in the City of Wash­
ington on December 27, 1915, and adjourned on January 8, 1916. It is to 
have a successor. The third of the scientific congresses will meet in the 
City of Lima on the 16th day of November, 1924. It was decided at the 
second congress that the third should meet at Lima, and it was anticipated 
that it would be within a period of five years from the date of adjournment. 
The continuance of the war, and the confusion of the international situation 
subsequent to and growing out of the war, have had their effects in the 
Americas. Finally, however, the obstacles standing in the way of a third 
congress have been overcome, and the official call has been issued by the 
Government of Peru. A circular signed by M. V. Yillaran, as President, 
and Jos6 P. Bravo, as Secretary General of the Organization Committee, 
has been sent out in order to obtain at Lima, under the auspices of the 
congress, the presence of adequate representatives in all branches of science 
in the Western Continent. One has appropriately been received by the 
President of the American Society of International Law, requesting its 
cooperation and the appointment of official delegates to attend and to 
participate in the labors of the Third Pan American Scientific Congress.

In support of the statement that science in all its branches is to be repre­
sented, a brief quotation is made from the invitation to the American 
Society of International Law:

The Congress will comprise the nine Sections hereinbelow mentioned, 
the Presidents whereof have been appointed.

1.— Anthropology, History and related Sciences— President, Dr. 
Felipe de Osma, President of the Historical Institute of Peru.

2.— Physics, Mathematics and related Sciences—President, Rear 
Admiral M. Melit6n Carbajal, President of the Geographical Society 
of Lima.

3.—-Mining, Metallurgy, Economic Geology and Applied Chemistry—  
President, Engineer Jose Balta, Professor of Economic Geology at the 
Lima School of Engineering.

4.— Engineering President, Engineer Dario Valdiz&n, Dean of Peru­
vian Engineers.

5.— Medicine and Sanitation— President, Dr. Guillermo Gastaneta, 
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

6.— Biology, Agriculture and related Sciences— President, Dr. 
Wenceslao F. Molina, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences.

7.—-Private, Public and International Law— President, Dr. Mariano 
Ignacio Prado y Ugarteche, Dean of the Faculty of Jurisprudence.

8.—-Economics and Sociology— President, Dr. Jose Matias Manzanilla, 
Dean of the Faculty of Politics and Economics.

9.— Education— President, Dr. Alejandro 0 . Deustua, Dean of the 
Faculty of Letters and Director of the National Library.

The congress opening on the 16th of November is expected to last a fort­
night, and in this congress covering all branches of science, it is expected



322 THE AM ERICAN JOURNAL OF IN TE RN ATIO N AL LA W

that the papers will cover at least its most important phases, and that they 
and their discussions will contribute in some measure to the advancement 
of science. It is of no small importance to bring the intellectual 61ite of the 
Americas together, who will discover their oneness notwithstanding differ­
ences of race, language and inherited traditions. “  Scratch a Russian,”  they 
say, “ and you will find a Tartar.”  Scratch an American of the North, of 
the Center and of the South, and you will find a human being. The great 
difficulty is to conserve the enthusiasm which is inevitably produced by 
these gatherings. The interval between them is considerable, and the in­
fluence of the second has spent itself long before the meeting of the third, 
just as the influence of the first had spent itself before the meeting of the 
second congress. The desideratum is that the connection between the con­
gresses be preserved; that some machinery be devised which will keep in 
contact with the scientists during the intervals between the congresses, and 
that effect may be given, if only in part, to their recommendations, other 
than to have them fall still-born as has been the case with each of these 
international gatherings. Not the least important service of a third Ameri­
can Congress meeting at Lima would be the discovery of some means where­
by the scientists of the Western Continent should keep in session, as it were, 
after their adjournment, and under direction continue their labors. The 
difficulty is great, but the greater the difficulty, the greater the need of 
meeting it.

It is to be hoped that many Americans of the North will find it possible 
to attend the congress, and take part in its proceedings. The meeting is to 
be held in the capital of Peru, and Peru has always made a special appeal to 
the Americans of the North. It is no discourtesy to the other American 
countries to say this, and any seeming discourtesy will be removed when 
the reason for it is given. That this should be so is a triumph of American 
literature. Many years ago, in 1847, a distinguished North American, one 
Prescott by name, published two volumes on the Conquest of Peru— a work 
speedily translated into Spanish, into French, and, indeed, into German and 
Dutch. The Americans of the North have been accustomed to read this 
masterpiece in their early youth, and the impression of the Incas of Peru, 
which they have received in their most impressionable period, remains 
with them all their lives, and Peru seems to them in no uncertain sense a 
land of dreams and of promise. The writer of this comment, if indeed it 
merits this title, has felt their charm, and he looks forward to the congress 
at Lima, which he hopes to attend in person.

If we only had a Prescott for every American Republic!
J a m e s  B r o w n  S c o t t .