I9I4] Alfred P. Lothrop 455 



A. ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS ON RESEARCH BY NON-RESIDENT 



MEMBERS" 



120. The complement fixation test in tuberculosis with 

 Besredka antigen. Jacob Bronfenbrenner. (Pathological and 

 Research Laboratories of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pitts- 

 hurgh, Pa.) At the Suggestion of Prof. A. Besredka, and through 

 his kindness in sending me tubercuHn prepared and described by him,^ 

 I started a series of blood tests in tuberculosis. As the antigen con- 

 tained egg yolk, in each case a control was made with a pure Hpoid 

 antigen (Noguchi).^ In the first hundred cases we found a surpris- 

 ingly large number that gave positive tuberculosis as well as posi- 

 tive Wassermann reactions. A special study of the possible co- 

 existence of the two diseases was made, and a Solution of the prob- 

 lem was attempted by the f ollowing several methods : ( i ) Seven 

 patients, giving both Wassermann and tuberculosis reactions, were 

 subjected to rigorous antisyphilitic treatment. At present five of 

 them have lost the Wassermann reaction, the tuberculosis reaction 

 persisting. (2) The presence of the two antibodies was proven by 

 independent titration of each with five units of corresponding anti- 

 gens. (3) It was found that the inactivation of serum containing 

 both antibodies did not affect the two similarly. (4) Finally, one 

 antibody was exhausted from the serum by repeated incubation with 

 antigen and complement, but the other antibody remained. 



The experiments described above included various controls 

 which are very complicated and will be fully described elsewhere. 



In the course of experiments through the kindness of Drs. W. 

 H. Park and A. A. McNeil of New York, and Drs. Schildecker, 

 Boyce and other members of the staff of this Hospital, 320 cases 

 were examined to date, comprising these different conditions : — Ty- 

 phoid fever, specific meningitis, tuberculosis, pemicious anemia, Can- 

 cer, pneumonia, scarlet fever, lupus, diphtheria, Syphilis, gonorrhea, 

 trichinosis and various surgical conditions, with the following 

 results : 



* Members of the Association who were not officially connected with the 

 Columbia Biochem. Dep't when the researches were conducted. 

 ^ Besredka : Compt. rend. de l'acad. des sciences, 156, p. 1633. 

 ^ Noguchi and Bronfenbrenner: Jour. Exp. Med., 191 1, xiii, p. 43. 



