FIXATION OF COMPLEMENT 135 



Craig and Xichols {Jour, Amer, 3Ied, Assn., 

 1911, Ivii, p. 474) have found that the recent ingestion 

 of varying quantities of alcohol has a marked effect on 

 the Wassermann reaction. These authors state that 

 from 180 to 240 c.c. of whiskey, 90 c.c. of 95 per cent, 

 alcohol, and 700 c.c. of Munich beer are capable of 

 causing a positive reaction to become negative for 

 periods ranging from 24 to 72 hours. They therefore 

 recommend, in any case where the ingestion of large 

 quantities of alcohol in the preceding 24 hours is sus- 

 pected, that the removal of blood from the patient for 

 performance of the test be postponed for 3 or 4 days. 

 The authors have recently observed a case of second- 

 ary syphilis in a chronic alcoholic patient, whose Was- 

 sermann did not become positive until the seventh 

 week of the disease. Previously, in an extensive ex- 

 perience with hundreds of cases of untreated syphilis, 

 the Wassermann reaction always resulted positively 

 by the fifth week following the appearance of the 

 chancre. 



It is now pretty generally agreed that a positive 

 Wassermann reaction means the presence of living 

 spiroch^tse in the body, the organisms having been 

 found in practically all lesions of every stage of ac- 

 quired and inherited syphilis. The reaction differs 

 from true antigen-antibody reactions in that the latter 

 are apt to persist for some time after the infecting 



