44 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science 



Thus the various red blood cells may be identified and one may positively 

 say that this blood is or is not human in nature. Such findings have 

 proven to be very valuable in fixing guilt in the case of murder. 



The various other body cells and tissues, as of the spleen, liver, 

 kidney, brain, placental as well as others, may be recognized by the 

 application of this serological test. 



Bordet and Gengou also found that when red blood or bacterial 

 cells were treated with immune serum from which the complement had 

 been removed by heating (56° C), that they become susceptible (sensi- 

 tized) to the action of the normal constituent in the blood (complement). 

 And that if now these sensitized cells were added to fresh serum all the 

 complement present in this serum would be taken up (fixed) by them 

 so that the fluid no longer dissolved cells. 



Thus the Bordet-Gengou phenomenon is also known as the comple- 

 ment-fixation test and is important in identifying diseases. It finds 

 wide practical application in serology and when it is used to diagnose 

 syphilis it is referred to as the Wassermann reaction. 



The phenomena of agglutination, precipitation and lysis and their 

 various modifications have a very great importance and practical sig- 

 nificance in immunology and are used in the daily routine in all clinical 

 and public health laboratories where they have become indispensable. 



Idiosyncrasy. 



In 1835, the efl'ect of reinjection of protein substances was noted. 

 In the early nineties this subject was again brought forth in serological 

 work with tetanus and diphtheria. 



In 1902 Richet, while studying poisons in sea animals, also observed 

 this effect of reinjection of protein material. He proposed the name 

 now used, anaphylaxis (without or no protection). Von Pirquet and 

 Schick used the term allergie, meaning "off the normal". Hyper or 

 supersensitiveness are different names for the same condition. 



Arthur, '04, following up Richet's work on the suggestion of Chauvei 

 used horse serum on rabbits and obtained the same results. Accumu- 

 lative poisoning following repeated injection of protein is known as 

 the Arthus phenomenon. 



In 1904 and 1905 clinicians began to observe certain results fol- 

 lowing serum treatment, (tetaus and di])htheria antitoxin) e. g., rest- 

 lessness and peripheral irritation perhaps skin eruption followed by 

 paralysis, convulsions and even suffocation and death. 



Von Pirquet and Schick collected a number of such reports into 

 a book entitled — "Serum Diseases". 



Theobald Smith, '05, called Ehrlich's attention to this strange 

 phenomenon. Ehrlich turned this problem over to Otto who in 1906 

 published a paper on the Theobald Smith phenomenon. 



About the same time Rosenau and Anderson, while working on 

 the standardization of toxins and antitoxins, published a paper on the 

 behavior of guinea-pigs to serum. Literally thousands of articles have 

 since been published on this subject. 



Summing up all the experimental evidence shows this to be a 



