PRECIP1TINS 113 



The Wassermann- Uhlenhuth Blood Test. As a 

 result of these researches Wassermann proposed, 

 at the Congress for Internal Medicine, 1900, to use 

 these sera as a means of differentiating albumins, 

 i.e., to distinguish the different albumins from one 

 another, and particularly to distinguish those 

 derived from man from those of other animals. 

 This proposal thus to use the Tchistowitsch-Bordet 

 precipitins had important practical and theoretical 

 results. Uhlenhuth, Wassermann, Schutze, Stern, 

 Dieudonne, and others showed that a serum could 

 be produced from rabbits by injecting them with 

 human serum, by means of which it is possible to 

 tell positively whether a given old, dried blood stain 

 is human blood or not. 



Uhlenhuth * tested nineteen kinds of blood and 

 only obtained a reaction with human blood upon 

 adding antihuman serum to the series of dilutions. 

 He, moreover, found that human blood which had 

 been dried four weeks on a board could be readily 

 distinguished by means of antihuman serum from 

 the blood of the horse and ox. On the following 

 day Wassermann 2 demonstrated experiments simi- 

 lar to Uhlenhuth 's at the meeting of the Physiologi- 

 cal Society, Berlin. Outside of human blood only 

 that of a monkey gave the reaction with anti- 

 human serum. 



1 Uhlenhuth, Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1901. xxvii. 

 * Wassermann A. and Schutze, Berliner klin. Wochenschr. 

 1901. No. xxviii. 



