The Syphilitic Antigen 319 



(i) The Syphilitic Antigen. It was supposed by Wasser- 

 mann, Neisser, and Bruck, who first devised the test, that 

 the syphilitic antigen must contain the essential micro- 

 organisms of syphilis. No method for the cultivation of Tre- 

 ponema pallidum having at that time been devised, cultures 

 of the specific micro-organism could not be employed. 

 Histologists had, however, shown that greater numbers of 

 the organisms were to be found in the livers of the congeni- 

 tally syphilitic stillborn infants than anywhere else. With 

 the purpose, therefore, of securing the greatest possible num- 

 ber of micro-organisms for the antigenic function, such livers 

 were used. The tissue, having been cut into small fragments, 

 was spread out in Petri or other appropriate dishes and dried, 

 and the fragments rubbed to a fine powder with a mortar and 

 pestle. Such a powder can be kept indefinitely in an exsic- 

 cator over calcium chlorid if placed where it is cool and dark. 

 When the powder is to be used, 0.5 gin. is extracted either at 

 room temperature or in the ice-box with 25 c.c. of 95 per cent, 

 alcohol for twenty-four hours, filtered through paper, and the 

 filtrate used in quantities later to be mentioned. 



Instead of drying the liver tissue, pulverizing, and then 

 extracting it, many investigators now prefer to cut it up, rub 

 it into a uniform paste with a mortar and pestle, and add 5 

 volumes of 95 per cent, or absolute alcohol, with which the 

 paste is thoroughly macerated and shaken many times or in 

 a shaking machine. The alcohol may then be filtered off, 

 or may be permitted to remain upon the sedimented liver 

 tissue remnants, and the clear supernatant fluid pipe ted off 

 and diluted, at the time of employment, with the isotonic 

 sodium chlorid solution. When this alcoholic extract is 

 added to the salt solution a turbidity occurs, but this must 

 not be filtered out, as it consists of the lipoids or other sub- 

 stances in the extract that are essential to the test, and the 

 quantity of the cloudy fluid in the final mixtures is so small 

 as not in any way to interfere with the results. The small 

 amount of alcohol in the diluted extract is negligible and has 

 no influence upon the reagents used for the test. 



The mention of the lipoids now brings us to the point where 

 it seems advisable to state that one of the most interesting 

 facts about the Wassermann reaction is that its theoretic 

 basis was founded upon the erroneous assumption that the 

 essential antigenic substance consisted of the whole or frag- 

 mented treponemata in the liver extract. The method 



