The Wassermann Test in Leishmaniosis 



by 

 I3R. ANTOIVIO EUOEIVIO E>E AREA LI3Ao 



Leishmaniosis americana is taken to 

 be one of the diseases in which the 

 WASSERMANN lest is frequently positi- 

 ve. This would appear, however, to be 

 the result of erroneous observation, pro- 

 bably on cases having suffered from 

 syphilis and in whom the disease was 

 either not identified or not looked for. 

 The same might perhaps be said of 

 many other diseases, malaria, measles, 

 scarlet fever etc. in which positive re- 

 sults have also been reported. Of these 

 we will treat later but we are al- 

 ready entitled to assert, even though 

 our statisticjs are still small, that we 

 only obtained positive results on pa- 

 tients of scarlet fever measles or mala- 

 ria that also suffered from syphilis. We 

 will later submit proofs and arguments. 



Syphilis is sometimes difficult to 

 diagnose, inasmuch as the patients deny 

 suffering from it. But after a positive test 

 carried out with care, syphilis should 

 be looked for by every other means pos- 

 sible. 



The WASSERMANN test, although 

 not based on a specific reaction, is 

 positive in an enormous number of cases 



in syphilis. The reaction reveals the 

 modifications introduced in the conta- 

 minated organism by the disease: a well 

 done specific treatment makes them di- 

 sappear sooner or later. For these rea- 

 sons, and although wc do not know the 

 fundamental cause, the WASSERMANN 

 test preserves a certain specificity in 

 syphilis. 



in how many ca.s6S in which it was 

 impossible to diagnose syphilis clinically 

 has not the WASSERMANN test aided 

 in establishing a diagnostic which fol- 

 lowed by specific treatment resulted in 

 considerable improvements in the pa- 

 tient's health? As it is a very complex 

 reaction, which depends on numerous 

 elements, it is necessary that they should 

 all be perfectly titrated: only like that 

 can the results be relied on. 



The differences in results of diffe- 

 rent authors are certainly due to the 

 different technic used by each one. If 

 the test is carried out under the same 

 conditions and with the same technic it 

 will give the same results even if done 

 by different workers. 



It is extremely necessary to us€t 



