AUGUSTUS WADSWORTH 833 



active serum was used. Later, Wilson' described the preparation of the various bac- 

 terial antigens which had proved to be most satisfactory. These indicate a further 

 purification; the bacterial cells were suspended in 50 per cent alcohol, washed in 

 absolute alcohol and ether, dried, and then suspended in salt solution, Arkwright^ 

 studied different antigens of the gonococcus and meningococcus with their immune 

 sera, and with the most active aqueous extracts which he prepared from these cultures 

 demonstrated cross-fLxation between these different species, and also the failure of the 

 reaction occasionally with different strains of the same species. Hirschfelder^ pre- 

 pared antigens from a large number of bacterial species by the action of digestive 

 ferments on the living bacterial cells. It is interesting to note, parenthetically, that he 

 apparently obtained substances with antigenic activity from the living pneumococcus 

 cell and yet the cell proved to be virulent after this treatment. Dombray" reports re- 

 actions of diagnostic and prognostic significance in cases of gonorrhea which were 

 very carefully studied by bacterial examination of the urethra. Some of the irregular 

 results that have been recorded, d'Herelle^ has suggested, might conceivably be at- 

 tributed to the interference of bacteriophage or the ultra-filterable viruses. The most 

 extensive study of the bacterial antigens has been made with cultures of the tubercle 

 bacillus. 



Much work has also been done with the glanders bacillus in veterinary practice 

 since the early studies of Schiitz and Schubert'' and Miessner and Trapp,^ and the 

 complement fixation test has been developed and has been used extensively.^ 



In all these reports, specific and non-specific reactions are recorded with the 

 different types of antigens used by various observers. This fact was so early recog- 

 nized that research was directed more extensively to the separation of the different 

 substances by various chemical procedures, extractions, and separations. It was 

 largely on this account, and because of the very practical significance of a reliable test 

 in tuberculosis from the public health standpoint, that we undertook in our labora- 

 tory the study of the complement fixation reaction in tuberculosis,' directing atten- 

 tion primarily to careful analysis of the activity of various elements of the tubercle 

 culture in order to differentiate, if possible, their antigenic value. Observations of 

 previous investigators, notably of Meyer'" and Negre and Boquet" on the significance 



' Wilson, M. A.: Studies, Neio York City Dept. Health, 9, 486. 1916-19. 



2 Arkwright, J. A.: J. Hyg., 11, 515. 1911. 



3 Hirschfelder, J. O.: J.A.M.A., 65, 2073. i9i5- 



■t Dombray, P.: Compt. rend. Soc. de bioL, 95, 12. 1926. 



5 d'Herelle, F.: The Bacteriophage, Its Rd!c in Immunity (trans. George H. Smith), p. 141. 

 Baltimore, Maryland: Williams & Wilkins Co., 1922. 



^ Schiitz and Schubert: Arch.f. wissensch. u. prakt. Tierh., 35, 44-S3. 1909. 



7 Miessner, H., and Trapp: Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., 52, 115. 1909. 



8 Mohler, J. R., and Eichhorn, A.: U.S. Dept. Agric., Bur. Anim. Indusl., Washington, Bull. 

 ij6. April 7, 191 1 ; McNeil, A.: New York Serological Society Meeting. April 4, 1914; Langdon, F., 

 and O'Toole, S.: /. Med. Research, 28, 333. 1913. 



' Wadsworth, A., Maltanei", F., and Maltaner, E.: /. Immunol., 10, 241. 1925. 

 '"Meyer, A.: Ztschr.f. Immunitatsjorsch. u. c.xper. Therap., 14, 359. 1912. 

 " Negre, K., and Boquet, L.: Compt. rend. Soc. de bioL, 83, 922. 1920. 



