228 The Philippine Journal of Science im 



further weakening is noted, and clinically, notwithstanding the 

 diminished fixing strength of serum, the lesions continued active 

 throughout the period of treatment. Following a single injec- 

 tion of neosalvarsan the lesions rapidly healed. 



Table 4. — Wassennann 



n tea 





After intravenous injection of neosalvarsan a preliminary 

 relatively rapid drop in the fixing strength of serum was also 

 noted and, in order to determine whether the immediate presence 

 of the drug in the serum was partially responsible for this, the 

 serum of a single case was titrated before and immediately after 

 intravenous injection. The results of the Wassermann reaction 

 with the two samples were identical. 



The supposition seems justifiable that the gradual diminution 

 in complement-fixing strength of serum over a period of several 

 months following an initial effective treatment, with an eventual 

 return to a negative reaction, indicates that the patient has been 

 completely cured. In syphilis the Wassermann reaction may 

 readily become negative during treatment only to return when 

 treatment is discontinued. Should any infection remain we 

 might expect persistence of positive reaction if not increase in 

 fixing strength of the serum. There is evidence, presented by a 

 large proportion of latent or chronic cases of yaws, that a positive 

 reaction may be present years after the acute manifestations of 

 the disease have subsided. Schiiffner reports 85 per cent posi- 

 tive in chronic late yaws and 58 per cent in the latent type. 

 We tested the serum of six adults who presented no obvious 

 evidences of the disease but gave a history of yaws in childhood, 

 and found two, or 33 per cent, positive. 



