THE WASSERMANN REACTION 627 



17 volumes saline ( = 2 in 19). Take two rows of four quill tubes 

 each and fill in as follows (using pipettes, (a), (6), and (d) ) : 



Front Row for Estimating m.Ji.d. of Complement. 



Tube! 234 



1. Saline 17 16 15 14Vols. 



2. Complement (1-24). .3 4 5 6 



3. Amboceptor-corpuscle mixture . 10 10 10 10 ,, 



Back Row for Antigen Control. 



Tube 1 2 3 4 



1. Saline . . . . .765 4Vols. 



2. Complement (2-19). * .3456,, 



3. Antigen dilution . . . 10 10 10 10 



The front row is incubated for twenty to thirty minutes in the 

 water-bath. 



The back row (antigen series) is incubated for twenty minutes, 

 and at the end of this time 10 volumes of the amboceptor-corpuscle 

 mixture is added (with pipette (d) ) to each tube and the tubes are 

 incubated for a further period of twenty to thirty minutes. The 

 readings are taken as described in Sect. IV, p. 617. 



The procedure corresponds with that described there, except that 

 to avoid the use of half -volumes, all volumes have been doubled. 



D. CONTROL WITH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SERA. A positive 

 and a negative serum may be kept from the previous tests. 



Make up (with 0-2 c.c. of the guinea-pig serum) a small quantity 

 of the proper dilution of complement as ascertained by the fore- 

 going standardisation C, thus : 



If m.h.d. is given by 



Tube 1234 



0-2 c.c. guinea-pig serum + 6-4 4-6 3-6 3-0 c.c. saline. 



Make two mixtures in small test-tubes (a) 0-5 c.c. proper 

 complement dilution -f 0-5 c.c. saline, (&) 0-5 c.c. proper comple- 

 ment dilution -f 0-5 c.c. antigen dilution. 



Take two rows of two quill tubes each and fill as follows : 



Back Row. 



Tube 1. Tube 2. 



1. 1 vol. (pip- 



ette (c) ) . Negative serum. Positive serum. 



2. 10 vols. (pip- 



ette (d) ) . Comp. dil. + saline. Comp. dil. -(- saline. 



402 



