162 



Tests with Precipitins 



Uhlenhuth (7, ii. 1901) was however the first to publish tests of 

 a kind that awakened general interest, more especially regarding the 

 medico-legal aspects of the test and its possibilities. He injected 

 rabbits with human blood, and tested the antiserum on 19 bloods (1), 

 finding only human blood to react. Normal rabbit serum had no such 

 effect. He made the practically important observation that human, 

 horse, or ox blood which had been dried 4 weeks on a board, could 

 readily be distinguished by the antiserum when brought into solution. 



A day later than Uhlenhuth, Wassermann (8, il. 1901) demonstrated 

 experiments similar to Uhlenhuth's at the Meeting of the Physiological 

 Society, Berlin. Outside of human blood only that of a " monkey" gave 

 the reaction. A report of the experiments appeared under the names 

 of Wassermann and Schiitze (18, ii. 1901) shortly after, it being stated 

 therein that they had tested 23 bloods with this antiserum (2). I have 

 ordered the bloods they tested here, and it will be seen that many of 

 those examined were the same as in Uhlenhuth's list. 



(1) Uhlenhuth's List 



Man Reacted 



Dog, cat No reaction 



Pig 



Ox, sheep, deer, fallow-deer ,, 



Horse, donkey ,, 

 Hare, rabbit, guinea-pig, rat, 



mouse ,, 



Fowl, turkey, pigeon, goose ,, 



(2) Wassermann and Schutze's List 

 Man, baboon Reacted 



Dog, cat No reaction 



Pig 



Ox, sheep, goat ,, 



Horse, donkey ,, 



Babbit, guinea-pig, rat, mouse ,, 



Fowl, duck, goose, sparrow ,, 

 Eel, pike, " Schlei " 



The latter authors also found that blood could be perfectly well 

 tested when brought into solution after being dried for 3 months on 

 various objects. The baboon's blood reacted nuich more slowly and 

 less markedly than did human blood. This finding possessed peculiar 

 interest to me, and, together with the similar observation of Stern, 

 led me to plan an investigation of the bloods of Anthropoidea. Stern 

 (28, II. 1901) also obtained anti-human serum from rabbits and found it 

 to act on blood which had been dried, and also on albuminous urine. 

 His antiserum did not act on horse, ox, sheep and pig bloods, whereas, 

 it gave a feeble but distinct clouding with the blood of 3 species of 

 monkeys "Meerkatze, Java-Afife, Kronen- Aflfe," the first being I suppose 

 a Cercojntheciis, the second Macacus cynomolgus L. He does not give 

 their scientific names, so that, as in the case of Wassermann and Schiitze, 

 it is difficult to identify them. 



Dieudonne (2, iv. 1901) obtained anti-human serum by treating 





