692 ABSTRACTS 



Studies on Treponema Pallidum and Syphilis. Hans Zinsser, J, G. 



Hopkins, and Malcolm McBurney. Proc. N. Y. Pathol. Soc, 



1916, 16, 15. 



Five strains have been kept aHve through ten or more generations 

 in rabbits. Four of these were newly isolated and the fifth was the 

 strain of Dr. Nichols. Apparent fluctuations in virulence are believed 

 to depend upon the character of the lesion from which the virus is 

 taken for inoculation, the size of the testes of the rabbit to be inocu- 

 lated, the thoroughness of maceration of the material before inocula- 

 tion, the delay before inoculation and the exact site at which the in- 

 jected material is placed. The apparent fluctuations are therefore 

 not considered as real alterations in virulence. Variation in thickness 

 of the spiral occurred in the different strains and was not characteristic 

 of any one in particular. 



The agglutination tests failed to distinguish Treponema pallidum 

 clearly from other similar organisms, notably Tr. calligyrum, even when 

 absorption methods were employed. 



Normal rabbit serum was found to be treponemacidal when consid- 

 erable amounts were used. Immune serum was treponemacidal in 

 one-tenth the quantity. The germicidal property was destroyed by 

 heating the serum to 56°C. for half an hour. 



Agglutination tests failed to distinguish syphilitic human serum 

 from that of patients free from syphilis. 



Agglutination occurred more readily in treponemata which have 

 been grown in artificial culture a long time. 



The preparation from cultures of a specific antigen for the Wasser- 

 mann test is being studied. — W. J. M. 



Animal Experiments upon the Acquirement of Active Immunity by 



Treatment with Von Ruck's Vaccine against Tuberculosis. F. J. 



Clemenger and F. C. Martlet. Medical Record, 1916, 90, 135- 



142. 



Experiments were conducted to determine whether the use of von 

 Ruck's vaccine was followed by an active immunity to tuberculosis. 



Clinical use of the vaccines in cases of lymph gland affections re- 

 sulted in no permanent changes in the local lesions, but in four out 

 of six cases there was improvement in the general condition. The sug- 

 gestion is made that the insusceptibility to treatment of the local 

 conditions was due to the fact that owing to the minimum of circulation 

 in the affected tissue, no elaboration of immune bodies, however 

 marked, would be met by a local response. 



Attempts to produce immune sera which would conform to a given 

 standard as expressed by the complement fixation test were partially 

 unsuccessful because of the prevalence and interfering action of 

 pseudotuberculosis. 



Bactericidal experiments with tubercular human sera demonstrated 

 that animals which had received a mixture of serum and tubercle ba- 



