PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF METHOD 



Table Taken from Neisser and Sachs, loc. cit., p. 1388 



0.1 human antiserum + 0.05 complement and variable amounts of different 

 normal sera (brought to 1 c. c. volume with salt solution) ; the mixtures kept 

 1 hour at room temperature. Then added 1 c. c. 5 per cent, washed beef 

 blood + 0.0015 c. c. amboceptor and left 1-2 hours at 37 C. 



The results are as follows : 



human antiserum; and this in quantities as small as 0.001 cubic 

 centimeter. 



The forensic complement fixation reaction of Neisser and Sachs 

 is both theoretically and practically valid. Its extensive use in many 

 investigations for theoretical purposes has well established its reli- 

 ability. However, it is more complicated and requires much more 

 experimental training and care than does the simpler precipitin test, 

 and it will rarely occur that an unknown protein is available in 

 quantities too small to permit of successful precipitation. 



THE USE OF COMPLEMENT FIXATION TESTS IN THE DIAG- 

 NOSIS OF MALIGNANT NEOPLASMS 



A great many attempts have been made to establish a method of 

 complement fixation by which a diagnosis of malignant tumors could 

 be made. It had been hoped that the substance of malignant tumors 

 might contain a form of protein or protein lipoid combination which 

 might represent substances specific for such tumors, and might there- 

 fore functionate as a specific antigen. On this basis it might be 

 possible that the serum of tumor patients would contain a specific 

 antibody which could react with a specific antigen in tumor extracts, 

 with the resulting formation of an alexin-fixing complex. 



~No experimental facts have so far justified our assumption of 

 the presence of either specific antigen in tumor extracts, or that of 

 a specific antibody in the serum of such patients. However, we have 

 seen that the Wassermann reaction is a perfectly useful clinically 

 diagnostic method, in spite of the fact that the antigen need not be 

 specific, and the purely empirical basis on which the syphilis reac- 



