Weitere Mitteilungen über den Nachweis spezifischluetischer Substanzen durch Komplementverankerung

The Wassermann Antigen and Related “Alcohol-Soluble” Antigens

“…Omission of the necessary safeguards against such occurrences has made valueless quite a number of experiments reported in the literature. However, the complement-fixation method is entirely reliable if properly conducted (3,13,27).…”

“…Origin of present conception of the nature of the Wassermann reaction. The Wassermann reaction was originally thought to be an application of the complement-fixation method, (which was quite new at that time) to the problem of sero-diagnosis of syphilis, using as an antigen the livers of syphilitic fetuses because they contained an abundance of spirochetes (3). Two observations were soon made which shook the belief that the Wassermann reaction was directed specifically against Treponema pallidum: it was demonstrated that alcoholic extracts were as good or better antigens than aqueous extracts (4); second, it was found that alcoholic extracts from normal organs served just as well (4 to 6).…”

The precipitin test in medico-legal work

“…The effect of bringing the antibody (hsemolytio serum into contact with the antigen (blood corpuscles of the kind used for injection) is that the cell stroma is ruptured and the hsemoglobin diffuses through the liquid. This" laking" of the blood, as it is called, is the most easily observed of all phenomena, and is extensively used for the detection of antigens and antibodies by the method first suggested by Bordet and Gengou (4), more fully worked out by Wassermann (5) and his colleagues, and now generally known as complementfixation.…”