The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-18
Science at st. Louis.

OF late years it has become the fashion
at every great worlds fair to provide,
by the side OF the material exhibits and
novel forms Of amusement, for con-
crosses of various kinds at which per-
sons of distinction in their several lines
may talk and be seen. Usually, too,
some one of these meetings is made spe-
cial feature Of the exhibition, the clou,
as the French call it, a sort of intellectual
Eifel Tower or Ferris Wheel to mark it
out from all others. Such, at Chicago,
was the Parliament of Religions and such
Is the International Congress of Arts
and Science that begins at st. Louis on
Monday.
The programme is the most ambitious
that has yet been made The mass Of
human knowledge has been twisted about
rather strangely and triturated so as to
give every specialist chance to speak
Sociology seems to have the lions share
and TO have annexed several older sci
ences, but then sociologists are hard to
repress. What with departments, di-
visions and sections, provision is made
for over 300 announced speakers, nearly
half Of them from foreign parts, but this
does not include remarks from chairmen
directors and so on. When tine congress
gets into full swing there will be stimuli
taneous talking by sixteen speakers at a
time, in different rooms. of course, till
the end OF the week
No arrangement of this kind, pre-
pared long beforehand, can be carried
out exactly as planned. We are in
formed that the programme has not
filed up as we'll as expected. STILL
enough eminent men have already ar
rived in this country to make the gath
ering a remarkable one. During all
September and particularly during the
past week, the university professors in
New York have been paying the penalty
Of living at the gate OF the New World
by haunting the steamship piers at all
hours in order to greet and direct the
visitors.
Not every great man in Europe has
come, of course, and of those who will
speak at St. Louis, as the acknowledged
heads of their professions. many are
almost unknown to the public. But the
organizers Of the congress, with men Of
the energy OF Presidents W. R. HARPER
and NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER and Prof.
HUGO MtNsTERBERd among them have
been remarkably successful in securing
foreign leaders in many branches. Their
list includes nearly sixty from Germany
and Austria-Hungary, twenty-five from
France and as many from Great Britain,
half dozen from Italy, with representa-
tives from nearly every other civilized
country in Europe and from Canada,
Mex loo and Japan besides.
The chemists and the philologists seem
to carry off the honors. JAKoB VAN
T'HoFF and HENRI MoIssAN are already
among the great names of their science,
and though Sir WILLIAM RAMSAY is not
announced, he is likely to speak, also.
The showing in the languages is remark
able. BRUoMANN of Leipzig in Classical
philology, PAUL MEYER of the College
de France in Romance philology, SIEv-
ERs of Leipzig in Germanic philology, are
the chief living authorities in their re-
spective branches. They will speak
and with them FRIEDRICH DELI1zscH,
the Assyriologist, and Pho RAMA, the
literary historian. France sends three
mathematician of the highest rank
EMILE PICARD, PoINcARE and CASTOR
DARBoUx.
Sir JOHN MURRAY of the Challenger is
the best known here of the geographers
present, with KARL Won DER STEINEN
and ARMINIUs VAMH cry, but Sir ARCH
IBALp GEIKIE and Prince ALBERT OF
Monaco are on the programme. ADOLF
HARNACK of Berlin and BUDDE of Mar
burg the theologians; RAMBAUD. the
historian and former Minister; GIARD,
the biologist; JANET, the psychologist;
Major RONALD Ross of malarial mos
quito fame, Prof. KTTAsATo Of Toxic, the
neurologist; the London doctors Sir
LAUDER BRUNToN and Sir FELIX SEMoN,
with the great LoMBRoso. will, among
many others, be heard. Two names in
very different lines stand apart, those OF
the Right Hon. JAMES BRYCE and MAR
CONT.
By the side OF this great array of for
eign talent stands a larger portion Of our
home product Americans have no