Symmetries of the Strong Interactions

An attempt is made to study the symmetry properties of the strong baryon-meson couplings without using arguments concerning the origin of the baryon mass differences. It is shown that too high a symmetry is incompatible with associated production experiments. The argument is independent of perturbation theory. It is assumed that the $\Sigma$ and $\Lambda$ have the same spin, that the ($\Sigma , \Lambda$) parity is even, and that the usual isotopic spin assignments are correct. The general conclusions may have to be revised if it would turn out that the commonly assumed baryon spectrum is incomplete.