THE SERUM OR PRECIPITIN TEST FOR BLOOD, AND 



ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION IN MEDICO-LEGAL 



CASES IN THE CAPE PROVINCE. 



By John Muller, B.A., F.C.S. 



In view of the number of criminal cases in which the 

 precipitin test, whereby blood stains can be definitely distin- 

 guished, as originating from human beings or other mammals, 

 has been successfully applied in this country and accepted as 

 evidence in its law courts, an account of its origin, history, and 

 local application may be of interest and value. 



To be certain that a reacting substance is blood, it is still 

 necessary, for forensic purposes, to utilize the ordinary tests for 

 blood, such as that for haematin, etc., as the precipitin or bio- 

 logical method in blood diagnosis affords a means only of dis- 

 tinguishing the albumins of different animals, irrespective of 

 their being contained in blood or in other products of the vital 

 functions. 



Deutsch,* of Buda-Pesth, claims priority in the sugges- 

 tion of the use of artificial hemolysins in medico-legal practice 

 in the identification of bloods, both fresh and dried (9th August, 

 1900, and later). 



The specific characters of precipitins were recognised by 

 Ehrlich. who, in a paper read before the Royal Society in March, 

 1900, summarised the work done by Bordet, Fich, and Morgen- 

 roth on Lactosera. 



Subsequently YYassermann (18th to 21st April, 1900) 

 brought the question of specificity into greater prominence ; he 

 fully recognised the practical bearings of the discoveries of 

 Tchistovitch and Bordet, and credit is due to him for having 

 suggested the use of precipitins in the differentiation of albumins 

 of different animals. 



The medico-legal use of precipitins was almost simultane- 

 ously discovered by Uhlenhuth, Wassermann and Schiitzef In 

 February, 1901, Uhlenhuth for the first time published the results 

 of experiments made under conditions likely to be met with in 

 forensic practice, and indicated the value of the method in the 

 identification of blood stains. A few days later Wassermann and 

 Schutze reported having examined 23 specimens of blood, none 

 of which reacted to anti-human serum except a sample of human 

 blood and one from a baboon, the reaction in the latter case 

 taking place much more slowly and to a lesser degree than in 

 human blood. L'hlenhuth, in April of the same year, reported 

 that his anti-human serum had served to identify human blood 

 which had been dried three months, and that even blood which 

 had undergone putrefactive changes for three months still 

 reacted specifically to its antiserum. 



In England Dr. Nuttall, \ University Lecturer at Cambridge 

 in Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine, has been the most dis- 



*Centralbhitt fur Bakteriologie, May 15, 1901. 

 t Berlin Klin. Wochemchr.,- February 2rst, 1901. 



\B. M. J., vol. II., 1901, p. 669: Nuttall's " Blood Immunity and Rela- 

 tionship," 1904. 



