Abstract
This morning I stand here in a double role—obliged by tradition to address you as President of this Association, but faced at the same time with the pleasant duty of discussing our Journal with you, as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology. What I have to say concerns primarily the Journal, but since the interests of the two are identical, no sharp attempt will be made to distinguish between them.
Some 36 years ago, when Dr. Coca asked Theobald Smith to assist at the birth of the Journal of Immunology by serving as an advisory editor, Smith “accepted willingly, but warned that ‘Immunology is dead’” (1). Dr. Smith was a very astute man; and I imagine therefore that, if he were to appear before the American Association of Immunologists today to defend this rather startling statement, he might reply with a question: “What is immunology?”
