The VIII International Geological Congress, Paris 1900
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336 Articles by O. Puche Riart, L. F. Mazadiego Martínez and P. Kindelán Echevarría The VIII International Geological Congress, Paris 1900 Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas-Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] France wanted to be the world centre of science and the Conference Palace of the Paris culture at the time of the Universal World Exhibition in Universal Exhibition in Place de l'Alma. The ceremony was led by the 1900 and therefore welcomed several international con- Conference Chair, Albert Gaudry gresses to Paris that year, including the VIII Interna- (1827–1908). He was a palaeontolo- tional Geological Congress. Some of the participants gist and professor at the Natural His- tory Museum and had been Vice- and organisers of this meeting are described and the Chairman of the first International participants and contributions are analysed by country. Geology Congress (Ellenberger, Topics in physical geography, tectonics and mineral 1970) (Figure 2). The Congress Sec- retary was the naturalist and former deposits attracted particular attention. The main Con- President of the Société Géologique gress themes are described and details of the numerous de France, Charles Barrois field excursions are also provided. No major scientific Figure 2 Albert Gaudry. (1851–1939) (Figure 3). Two distin- advances occurred as a result of the Congress but it pro- guished vice-presidents collaborated with them: Auguste Michel-Lévy vided the opportunity for valuable exchanges of infor- (1844–1911), a renowned petrologist mation and ideas and impetus to several fields. and chair of the French Geological Map Commission (Figure 4), and Marcel Bertrand (1847–1907), a tec- Introduction tonicist and Professor at the École des Mines in Paris (Figure 5). Others who participated in the organization The first International Geological Con- were, for example, the sedimentolo- gress (IGC) was held in Paris in 1878, gist and stratigrapher Lucien Cayeux chaired by Edmond Hébert (1812–1890), (1864–1944), a disciple of Jules Gos- the first professor of geology at Sorbonne selet in Lille, petrologist and head of University. Since then, these gatherings geology at the École des Mines from have been held, at three- or four-year Figure 3 Charles Barrois. 1907, Armand Thévenin (1870– intervals, in various countries round the Figure 1 VIII Inter- 1818), a well-known palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, world. The early congresses mainly national Geological and Philippe Thomas (1843–1910) who had served in the army and sought to establish a common geological Congress logo, Paris, discovered phosphate deposits in North Africa and at that time was terminology and chronostratigraphical 1900. director of graphic work for the French Geological Map Commis- divisions, unify cartography, make sion. The Treasurer was Léon Carez, editor of Annuaire de géologie known new findings, and discuss controversial issues as they arose. and an authority on Pyrenees geology. The Latin motto for the conferences in fact suggested these goals: Gaudry and Barrois had worked outside France on several 'mente et malleo' ('with mind and hammer'). occasions and had contacts with other foreign geologists, and as In 1900, the Congress returned to its city of origin, Paris. The Thévenin pointed out in Gaudry's obituary: “[h]e had the good for- previous meeting had been held in St Petersburg (Russia) in 1897, tune to chair the International Geological Conference held in Paris chaired by the petrologist Alexander Petrovich Karpinsky (1900) and feel the friendliness of geologists from other parts of the (1846–1936), and it was decided that the next 'encounter' would take world, which had over a long time, grown out of the great courtesy place in the French capital (Anon., 1899). always extended to him in his trips around Europe and America” The French geologists set up an organizing committee, which, (Thévenin, 1910). at its opening meeting, filled the executive posts and drew up a list of potentially suitable candidates for the effective development of the Congress. The committee was formed by sixty eminent geoscien- tists, who laid the foundations for the organization of the meeting (i.e. place, dates, permanent exhibitions, excursions, and so on), holding meetings on 11 January, 23 February and 13 April, 1898. Then, in 1899, the first circular was issued, including all this infor- mation. Although most of the leading French geologists were appointed to the committee, a few were omitted, such as Joseph Blayac and Louis Gentil (1868–1925), compilers of the Algerian geological map (1900), Léon Pervinquière, Alfred Dereims. The lat- ter did not attend the Congress since he was exploring in West Africa at the time (cf. Gómez Alba, 1992). On Thursday 16 August 1900, at 4 p.m., the formal opening session of the Eighth International Geology Congress took place in Figure 4 Auguste Michel-Lévy. Figure 5 Marcel Bertrand. September 2008 337 Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology (18–25 August), the V Congress of the Second International (1889–1916), at which the International Socialist Bureau was founded, and so on and so forth. As the mining engineer Albert Auguste Cochon de Lapparent (1839–1908), President of the Société Géologique de France (Figure 8), rightly affirmed: “It was just impossible that the 1900 Exhibition and the International Geological Congress were not a manifestation of the same spirit” (Anon., 1901). The Geological Congress mem- bers had free access to the Exhibition. The Société Géologique de France, which had participated in all the preparations for the Congress, had reached its seventieth anniversary and it was decided to commemorate this by holding a special meeting to coincide with the Congress. A previous special meeting had been celebrated in 1867, chaired by the Belgian geolo- gist Jean Baptiste Julien d'Omalius d'Halloy (1783–1875), to coin- Figure 6 Paris Universal Exhibition, Electricity Palace. cide with the Universal Exhibition that year. There was a festive atmosphere in the special session of 1900, which included: 1. A reception offered to the Congress members in the Society's new premises (L'Hôtel des Sociétés Savantes) on the same day as the Congress opening. There was electricity to illuminate the event and the flags of the countries represented by those attend- ing the Congress were raised, flanked by the French flag. The reception opened with a speech by the Society's President; and beverages were served. 2. Field trips were organized by the Congress to the environs of Paris, additional to those planned by the Congress's organizing committee to various places in France. The Society's excursions were led by the mineralogist and former President, Gustave Doll- fus (1850–1931) and the mining engineer Léon August Janet (1861–1909), who was the Society's Vice-President and Trea- surer at that time (Figure 9). In the course of his address at the reception, de Lapparent said that the Society's greatest adornment was Albert Gaudry, who had been its President on three occasions. De Lapparent underscored the Figure 7 Paris Universal Exhibition, Alexander III Bridge. relationship between the Congress and the Société Géologique de The Paris Universal Exhibition had been opened on 14 April France, referring to the close links between the two bodies (Anon., 1900. Electricity was undoubtedly the main star of this event, with 1901). At that time, the Society had 520 members (Gaudant, 2007), the exhibition being lit by 12,000 bulbs. Other attractions were a a large number of whom participated in the Paris Congress (1900). reproduction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, simulating a trip from At the Society's meeting after the Congress on 5 November Peking to Moscow; the cinéorama with its circular screen and ten 1900, Gaudry thanked the Society for its support and stated that there simultaneous projectors (but which soon had to be closed because of the risk of fire); the mareorama, simulating a trip through the Mediterranean, etc. These attractions were exhibited in a series of buildings in the art noveau style (Figures 6 and 7). The Universal Exhibition coincided with a series of other events, such as the Second Olympic Games, where Pierre Frédy, Baron of Coubertain (1863–1937), a man of French origin, inter- vened to make the sporting event take place in Paris at the same time as the Exhibition. Other congresses were also held: for example, the Metallurgical Mining International Congress (18–23 June), the XIII International Medicine Congress (29 August), the Second Interna- tional Mathematical Congress (6–12 August), the International Elec- tricity Congress (18–25, August), the International Congress of Figure 8 Albert de Lapparent, Figure 9 Léon August Janet. President of the Société Géologique de France. Figure 10 Countries represented at the Congress. Epiosodes, Vol. 31, no. 3 338 Figure 11 Distribution of Congress enrolments and participants according to nationalities. had been 1,025 people registered at the conference, a significant actively (about 45%), a large proportion of whom were French (167, number (Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 1901, v. 28, p. about 36%). 805), which more than tripled the 310 participants of the previous Paris Congress in 1878 (Vai, 2004). Among the 1,025 people regis- tered were the wives of some members as well as representatives of The field excursions companies and scientific societies, such as the Société Géologique du Nord and the Société Géologique de France. As Gaudry pointed The organizing Committee arranged two types of field trips: 'gen- out in his opening address: “I have never before seen so many scien- eral', which were open to all people who had attended the confer- tists gathered together, to whom geology, palaeontology and miner- ence; and 'special', restricted to geologists interested in the specific alogy owe their immense progress made in this century” (Gaudry, subject of the trip, with a maximum of twenty people.