An Old Speech
In 2004 Prof. Ricardo Bento and I organized the first (and only) meeting of the Collegium Oto-rhino-laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum held in the southern hemisphere. I had the opportunity to welcome the members of the Collegium to Costa do Sauipe, near Salvador, where the Meeting was held. I was looking at old papers in my office and found this speech, that was not published. I would like to share it with you. My wife and I at the opening of the Collegium Meeting in Bahia A little more than 500 years ago a group of Portuguese sailors, commanded by Pedro Alvares Cabral, landed not very far from here, officially discovering Brazil. Two years previously they had found the sea route to India. I feel that they were as brave and intrepid as the men who now venture in outer space. They did not know how to measure longitude. In order to know where they were they had to rely on logs of previous voyages and on the beautiful stars of the southern hemisphere skies, such as the Souther