An Experimental Verification of the Significance of the Delayed Negative Wassermann Reaction

Abstract

Several years ago, Olson 1 and more recently, McConnell 2 have called attention to a phenomenon known as the "delayed negative" Wassermann reaction. In essence, it has to do with the time at which the reaction is read. If read in about thirty minutes, it is positive; but at the end of an hour or two hours, as the case may be, it is negative. They are inclined to the opinion that such a reaction should be regarded as at least a partial one. McConnell has shown that it occurs in about

Immunopathology

“…Agglutination (Mellon and Avery, 1921;Salvin, 1950) and precipitation (Martin, 1953;Abernathy and Heiner, 1961) tests have been attempted, but are not of outstanding value in prognosis and diagnosis, probably because of the low specificity and sensitivity of the antigens used in testing. If purified active specific fractions can ultimately be produced, then precipitation-type tests may ultimately prove to be most useful as serological aids.…”