484 Transactions. 



Art. LIII. — The Anticomplementary Properties observed in certain 



Serum Reactions. 



By A. M. Wright, Captain N.Z.M.C., Bacteriologist N.Z.E.F. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury , 1st December, 1920; received by 

 Editor, 5th December, 1920 ; issued separately, 12th August, 1921.) 



The notes put on record in this paper have been made in connection with 

 the determination of nearly ten thousand Wassermann reactions carried out 

 for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the author's overseas 

 service. 



In general the Wassermann reaction was determined in conformity 

 with the recommendations of the Medical Research Committee, using the 

 method elaborated by Colonel L. W. Harrison, K.H.P., D.S.O.,* the 

 measurement of the reagents being carried out by the method adopted by 

 Donald. f 



When care is exercised in standardizing the pipettes used, Donald's 

 dropping method was found by comparison to give complete concordance 

 with methods using hand-pipettes. The principle involved in Donald's 

 method is that " at constant temperature and pressure, and at a constant 

 delivery-rate which does not exceed one drop per second, the size of a 

 drop of any given liquid which is delivered by a vertically held nozzle 

 is constant, and depends on the circumference of the delivery-nozzle at 

 its outlet." 



When large numbers of tests have to be carried out the monotony and 

 eye-strain involved in using the hand-pipettes are considerable ; with the 

 dropping-pipettes, after a standardization is made, the determination is 

 almost automatic, and accuracy is independent of fatigue. This principle 

 is also applicable to many determinations involved in ordinary chemical 

 analyses, as well as those carried out in connection with bio-chemical 

 reactions. 



Antigen. 



An important consideration in the Wassermann reaction, as well as 

 in other serum tests, is the nature of the antigen used. While, doubtless, 

 individual workers obtain conoordant results with various antigens, it has 

 been the writer's experience that the human-heart extract, with ohole- 

 sterin, as recommended by the Medical Research Committee, gives the most 

 satisfactory and concordant results, if prepared in strict conformity with 

 the instructions laid down by Fildes and Molntoshj and from fresh heart- 

 muscle, the extraot-heart-oholesterin being diluted 1 in 15 with normal 

 physiological saline (0-85 per cent. NaCl). 



* Medical Research Committee's Report, Path. Methods, No. 1, pp. 13-27, 1918. 

 t R. Donald, Proc. Royal Soc, vol. 86, pp. 198-202, 1913. 

 % P. Fildes and J. McIntosh, Brain, vol. 36, p. 193, 1913. 



