CHAPTER VIII 



WASSERMANN AND OTHER COMPLEMENT FIXATION TESTS 



APPARATUS 



The apparatus needed for complement fixation tests : 



An electric centrifuge, a hot-air sterilizer, a steam sterilizer or autoclave, a 

 balance sensitive to o.i Gm., an incubator, a small water bath, one dozen gradu- 

 ated centrifuge tubes (15 cc. capacity), half a dozen wide-mouthed ground-glass- 

 stoppered bottles of 500 cc. capacity, a like number of similar bottles of 200 cc. 

 capacity, 50 florence flasks (100 cc. capacity), 50 deep petri dishes (4 inches in 

 diameter), 100 glass vials (2 cc. capacity), and rubber stoppers for same, 100 

 test-tubes of each of the following sizes: 6 by i inch, 6 by % inch, 4 by % inch, 

 several standardized cylindrical graduates (1000 cc. capacity) graduated in 10 

 cc., a half dozen pipettes (5 cc. capacity) graduated in J^Q cc., a dozen pipettes 

 (i cc. capacity) graduated in J^oo cc. (these pipettes should discharge between 

 graduation marks and should not be graduated to the tip), several graduated 

 Luer glass syringes (2 cc. capacity), several lo-cc. capacity Luer glass syringes, 

 100 Gm. chemically pure sodium chloride, 100 Gm. chemically pure sodium 

 citrate, chloroform, ether and non-absorbent cotton. 



Needles are also required. Either steel or iridium-platinum needles may 

 be used. The initial cost of the former is very much less than the latter, but 

 eventually the less corrosive are probably the cheaper. The iridium-platinum 

 needles are also the nicer to work with. For the 2-cc. syringes, needles about 

 i J^ inches long, with the smallest bore through which blood cells can be passed, 

 are required. The needles for the lo-cc. syringes are used for withdrawing 

 blood from the veins of patients and from the hearts of rabbits or guinea-pigs. 

 It is best to have several sizes of these, the most useful being the larger-size 

 serum needle. 



All glassware used in this work should be thoroughly washed in several 

 changes of distilled water and be free of acids or alkalies; it should be set aside 

 for this work exclusively and thoroughly washed in plain water immediately 

 after use. For some complement fixation tests it is essential that apparatus 

 be sterile. It is a good practice to follow in all these tests even when not abso- 

 lutely necessary, and it is, therefore, recommended that all containers flasks, 

 bottles, test-tubes, pipettes, syringes and needles be sterilized immediately after 

 use and kept in sterile containers. 



In our own laboratory all empty glassware is sterilized in a hot-air sterilizer 

 at i4oC. for 2 hours. Before sterilization, pipettes are placed in copper con- 

 tainers or wrapped in paper; Petri dishes and syringes are enveloped in double 

 paper wrappers, tubes used for fixation tests are wrapped in paper in packages 



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