There is nothing that can testify to the well-being of a scientific society better than its annual congres When after a not many successive congresses and either spontaneous participation or participant enthusiasm decline.

There is nothing that can testify to the well-being of a scientific society better than its annual congres When after a not many successive congresses and either spontaneous participation or participant enthusiasm decline, we can assume that something is going wrong

This is not occurring within the European Respiratory Society (ERS) at least not according to the data coming from the Third Annual Congres held in Firenze, Italy, from September 25 to the 29 1993 With consider to the Second Annual Congres (Vienna, Austria, 1992) the data are really exciting, considering ER was born barely 3 years ago after the merger of pair pre-existing European societies, the more than 25-year-old Societas Europaea Physiologiae Clinical Respiratoria (SEPCR) and the 10-year-old Societas Europea Pneumologica (SEP)

More than 5700 members attended the Congres with an increase of 30 percent compared with the attendance at last year's Vienna Congres More than 2400 abstracts were submitted and about 1800 were accepted (37 percent and 29 percent more, respectively). Three hundr ninety-seven members from Eastern European countries attended the Congres greatest in number of them having an abstract accepted for presentation.

Of course, not single the quantitative but especially the qualitative features of the meeting were happily surprising. The Saturday preceding the official opening of the Scientific Sessions, eight postgraduate courses in English and four in Italian were held and most numerous of them were fully volumeed During the Congress, the 24 Major Symposia devot to general topics and the 12 Assembly Symposia, dealing with more specific items, were of exceptionally high quality and were held in completely packed auditoriums. On three different days, 12 Satellite Symposia sponsored by dint of the pharmaceutical industry were organized in the afternoons at the extremity of the Scientific sessions. peace was overseen by the ER Scientific Committee and was of the best Every room during the 4 days of the Congres was filled to capacity; the discussions after each session were pertinent and constructive, and they proffered an exchange of wide ranging, stimulating ideas.

During the Congres many other initiatives took place, like as a symposium jointly organized through ERS and the American Thoracic Society, brace joint meetings with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, a post-graduate course organized in collaboration with the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and a special symposium organized with the cooperation of the World Health Organization and the National Heart, Lung and children Institute. Particular attention was given also to the educational programs of the ACCP, whose experience in this field can be extremely helpful to European respiratory medicine.

Language point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds were faced and partly solv from broken English, the language of Scientific Communication, oral with Italian, Polish, Portugese, classic and many other accents. A happy small in number were able to completely expound their language problems, after having attended the special linguistic course devot to "Scientific Communication in English."

Of course, the masterpieces of the Florentne Renaissance, the European musical tradition, and the delights of Italian cooking easily created the warm and friendly atmosphere likewise helpful to scientific discussion and the promotion of just discovered study projects.

If forward the basis of the Annual Congres we can argue about the health of ER we can also be reassured and should determine that European respiratory medicine is growing rapidly and well. In a short time, it will take rise of age, furthered by the enthusiasm of the young scientists and professionals who have themselves matured and benefitted on the wisdom of the old-fashioned European tradition.

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