FIXATION OF COMPLEMENT 101 



occasional case of syphilis than to saddle a diagnosis 

 of the disease with all it entails on a patient who does 

 not have the disease. 



Considerable harm is being done at present by the 

 use of unreliable non-specific or artificial extracts, in 

 two ways: 



1. The marked discrepancies between the results 

 of the Wassermann test and the clinical findings in 

 many cases are causing skeptical clinicians to lose con- 

 fidence in the value of the reaction, and thus they are 

 being deprived of an important diagnostic and thera- 

 peutic aid, 



2. A great many unfortunate persons are being 

 treated for syphilis who have not and never had syphi- 

 lis, as the result of weakly positive and doubtful re- 

 ports of workers using these antigens. 



Since Noguchi, in 1911, first cultivated the Tre- 

 ponema pallidum in a pure state, much work has 

 been done by Noguchi, Kolmer, and others with 

 antigens made from the treponemata themselves. The 

 results have been disappointing for diagnosis of pri- 

 mary and early secondary syphilis, as only a relatively 

 small proportion of these cases gives positive reactions 

 when the spirochsetal antigens are employed. But the 

 positive reactions obtained in late secondary and ter- 

 tiary cases do prove that there is a specific fixation of 

 complement occurring when lipoidal substances are 



