188 APPLIED IMMUNOLOGY 



four days, then slowly recedes, all signs disappearing 

 usually in a week or two. At the height of the reac- 

 tion the papule commonly presents a bluish-red colora- 

 tion and may be associated with vesicles, even under- 

 going pustulation and ulceration with secondary crust 

 formation. In the so-called torpid form, the slight 

 reactive signs entirely disappear in three or four days 

 and will suggest a negative result. However, after 

 ten or more days, the injected site may light up and 

 proceed to pustulation as above described. Systemic 

 reactions, as malaise, loss of appetite, diarrhoea and 

 slight rise of temperature occur rarely. 



It is not assumed that this test will replace the 

 Wassermann reaction. Certainly, the Wassermann 

 reaction is infinitely superior to the luetin test in the 

 primary, secondary and acute tertiary stages of s^^phi- 

 lis, although in the latent nervous and hereditary 

 forms of the disease Xoguchi adheres to the superior- 

 ity of the skin reaction. He found the test positive 

 in 100 per cent, of manifest tertiary lesions, in 94 per 

 cent, of latent tertiar}^ and in 96 per cent, of heredi- 

 tary syphilis. It would seem that the serological reac- 

 tion is more readily influenced to become negative 

 under treatment than is allergic cutaneous reaction. 



Cutaneous Eeaction in Gonorrhoea. — In 1908, 

 Irons alluded to the diagnostic value attached to the 

 constitutional disturbances provoked by therapeutic 



