The Immunologist and the Evil Spirits

Abstract

One of the Association's few requirements of the president is acceptance of the honor of addressing its members at the annual meeting. Selection of the topic of discussion, which is left to the discretion of the speaker, is difficult because of the varied interests of the group. Moreover, the choice of topics appears to be limited because it is the consensus of most interested persons that infections, for all practical purposes, have been eliminated. It is conceded, perhaps, that a few things of academic interest remain to be done, such as synthesis, by the chemists, of antibodies, and ferreting-out, by combined activities of chemists and mycologists, of Ehrlich's “therapia sterilisans magna.” But it is generally assumed that the chief problems have been solved. Those obvious conclusions, however, are orderly deductions by well informed minds. The honor of addressing the Association this year falls to one with a simple mind.