I want to express my deep appreciation of the honor the members of this Society have done me in making me their president during the past year. I consider it one of the highest honors I could have received. It really is an honor rather than a job, for nearly all of the hard work has been done by our very energetic and efficient secretary-treasurer, Dr. John L. Larsh, Jr., by the conscientious efforts of our committees, and by our council. With reference to my subject tonight, I doubt if it would be possible in the whole realm of human knowledge to find a more perfect example of intertwining of cause and effect, with the production of a vicious circle, than that presented by malnutrition and infectious disease in the tropics. These are two specters which haunt the great majority of the inhabitants, from conception to the grave, in the so-called tropics.