CHAPTER IX 



APPLICATION OF COMPLEMENT FIXATION TO THE 

 DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE 



THE WASSERMANN REACTION. 

 INTRODUCTION. 

 THE ANTIGEN. 



NATURE OF THE SYPHILITIC ANTIGEN. 

 THE SYPHILITIC " AMBOCEPTOR." 



NATURE OF THE SYPHILITIC " AMBOCEPTOR." 

 THE COMPLEMENT. 

 THE HEMOLYTIC SYSTEM. 



PRESERVATION OF ERYTHROCYTES. 



INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE UPON THE REACTION. 

 TECHNIC OF THE TEST. 

 THE ANTIGEN. 

 OTHER REAGENTS. 

 THE TEST. 



MODIFICATIONS OF THE TEST. 

 SPECIFICITY OF THE REACTION. 

 DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF THE REACTION. 

 INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS. 

 DEPENDABILITY OF THE TEST. 

 QUANTITATIVE RESULTS WITH THE TEST. 

 TEST OF SPINAL FLUID. 

 POST-MORTEM WASSERMANN TESTS. 

 COMPLEMENT FIXATION IN TUBERCULOSIS. 



" ACID FAST FIXATION." 



COMPLEMENT FIXATION IN GONOCOCCUS INFECTIONS. 

 OTHER COMPLEMENT-FIXATION TESTS. 

 GLANDERS. 

 TYPHOID FEVER. 

 SMALLPOX. 

 WHOOPING COUGH. 

 ECHINOCOCCUS CYST. 

 MALIGNANT TUMORS. 

 SPOROTRICHOSIS. 



THE WASSERMANN REACTION 



Introduction. The demonstration of complement fixation employs 

 five reagents, syphilitic antigen, red blood-cells, syphilitic serum, hemo- 

 lytic serum and the complement. Having any four of these known it is 

 possible to determine the immunological nature of an unknown fifth 

 reagent. This unknown may be an antigenic substance or may be an 

 amboceptor. In the forensic tests for species proteins the unknown is 

 the questionable protein which is employed as an antigen; in other 

 tests the unknown may be bacteria or bacterial proteins. In the Was- 

 sermann and other clinical tests the unknown is an amboceptor or 

 similar substance, produced in the blood and other body fluids of the 

 diseased subject. 



After preliminary experiments on animals, Wassermann, Neisser, 

 Bruck and Schucht published in 1906 the results of a series of com- 

 plement-fixation tests in cases of human syphilis and demonstrated the 

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