It is a heavy task to trace the history of any branch of science, and certainly the most difficult when we try to describe the last segment, that is, the present phase of that history, when the protagonists of the history are still alive; and even worse if they are assembled in the same room, as are many of them present here in this inaugural session of a Symposium on Inflammation. We could not assemble all of them, because of the extension of the subject, the distance to be travelled, from Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the USA, and worst of all, because of the terrible rate of exchange of our cruzeiro toward the dollar. But, none the less, we have the pleasure and honor to be host to distinguished representatives of the basic science in one of the most basic subjects in medicine, namely the