Abstract
THE third International Congress of Geologists, postponed last year on account of the spread of cholera in southern Europe, has just been held at Berlin. Each successive gathering has far surpassed its predecessors in numbers and in the representative character of its members, the numbers attending the meeting at Berlin being no fewer than 255. Of these of course the large majority were Germans, who mustered in all 163. Italy, however, furnished 18 representatives; Austria, 16; Great Britain, 11; France, 10; United States, 9; Belgium and Russia, 6 each; Sweden and Switzerland, 3 each; Norway and Holland, 2 each; Spain, 1; Brazil, 1; India, 1; Japan, 1; Portugal, 1; Roumania, 1. The meetings were held in the buildings of the Reichsrath, or Parliament, the large room set apart for the deliberations of the Congress being that of the Lower House of Representatives, and no little interest was taken by the foreign geologists in the names of the Members of Parliament inscribed on the backs of the seats. The door also was pointed out from which the great Chancellor emerges to launch his philippics against the contumacious opposition. But the genius loci inspired no flights of eloquence nor much disputatiousness among the geologists. The use of French as the language of discussion was no doubt one effective cause of silence on the part of many members who would otherwise only too readily have made themselves heard. Under such circumstances the Latin races have of course a considerable advantage over the Teutonic. One of the Berlin papers gave articulate expression to the complaint that in an audience nearly two-thirds of which were Germans, French should have been chosen, and great was the delight expressed by the German element in the Congress, when the Minister of Public Instruction, who officially welcomed the assembly, gave his eloquent and appropriate address in German. But by common consent, and with much good humour, though often with a disregard for the claims of grammar, idiom, and pronunciation that must have been infinitely ludicrous to the French-speaking members, the international official language was used throughout the proceedings.
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The Third International Geological Congress . Nature 32, 599–601 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032599a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032599a0