282 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. S17 



a quart of water or of urine free from bile, 

 the high surface-tension of the latter fluids 

 will support the sulphur so that it will float 

 for weeks. Directly a drop of bile is added 

 to either fluid, the surface-tension is lowered, 

 and the pull of gravity overcoming the push 

 of surface-tension, the sulphur sinks to the 

 bottom as if in vacuo. Professor Ascoli's test, 

 which is confessedly derived from Traube's 

 researches, is based upon the experimental fact 

 that when the antibodies of a disease and its 

 corresponding antigens are brought together 

 there is a noticeable lowering of the surface- 

 tension. The tension in this case is not meas- 

 ured by the ordinary method (height of a 

 given fluid in a capillary tube), but after the 

 fashion devised by Traube, which consists in 

 enumeration of droplets at constant tempera- 

 ture in unit time from a special pipette of 

 Traube's invention, the " stalagmometer." 

 Taking distilled water as the standard, the 

 greater the number of drops from the stalag- 

 mometer per minute (at fixed temperature) 

 the lower the surface-tension and vice versa. 

 If the diluted blood serum of a cancer or 

 typhoid patient is exposed to the action of the 

 corresponding antigen for two hours in an 

 incubator at 37°, the surface-tension will be 

 found to be sensibly lowered by actual meas- 

 urement. This mode of diagnosis, the details 

 of which will be found in Professor Ascoli's 

 papers,' is now on trial in Italy and Germany 

 and some of the results are forthcoming. 



Ascoli found that 93 out of 100 cases of car- 

 cinoma and sarcoma gave a positive reaction 

 by the meiostagmin test; the 7 negative cases 

 gave consistently negative data with other 

 antigens. In 102 assorted cases of other dif- 

 ferent diseases the test was negative or un- 

 satisfactory. 



Michele and Catoretti ' obtained a positive 

 diagnosis in 28 cases of carcinoma and sar- 

 coma. Tedesko ° was equally successful in 

 28 out of 29 cases of carcinoma. S. d'Este ' 



* Miinchen. med. Wochenschr., 1910, LXII., pp. 

 62, 403, 1170. 

 'Ibid., 1122. 

 "Wien. med. Wochenschr., 1910, No. 26, p. 1514. 



got positive results in 12 cases of malignant 

 tumors, but negative data in 10 benign tu- 

 mors; and he concludes from his trials with 

 tuberculosis that, in comparison with reactions 

 like the von Pirquet test, the Ascoli reaction 

 is reliable only in well-developed tubercular 

 cases, not in obscure or latent lesions. Izar' 

 got positive data in 34 out of 35 cases of 

 phthisis with ascertained bacilli, and in 5 

 other cases in which phthisis was diagnosed 

 but the bacillus not found, the meiostagmin 

 test was equally positive. In addition, Izar 

 obtained positive results in 10 cases of hyda- 

 tids and 6 cases of hook-worm infection; on 

 the other hand, Weinberg and Jonesco's " re- 

 sults in 10 cases of hydatids were all negative. 

 In 90 cases of ascertained syphilis, Izar and 

 Usuelli '° found that 67 were positive both for 

 the Ascoli and Wassermann reactions. Of the 

 remaining 33 cases, 9 were negative for the 

 Ascoli test of which 3 were positive for the 

 Wassermann ; 7 were negative for the Wasser- 

 mann, 5 of which were positive for the Ascoli ; 

 in 3 cases both tests were doubtful, in 4 others 

 absolutely negative. Of 18 doubtful cases of 

 syphilis, 6 were positive for the Wassermann 

 test, and negative for the Ascoli; 8 were posi- 

 tive for the Ascoli and negative for the Was- 

 sermann; 4 were negative for both. In 104 

 cases of other different diseases investigated 

 by Izar and Usuelli, it was found that the 

 Ascoli reaction was negative in all except a 

 single case of erythema nodosum. The meios- 

 tagmin reaction would appear, then, to be a 

 reliable corroborative test in cases of carcin- 

 oma and sarcoma and may have some value in 

 typhoid and syphilis, but it is still suh judice 

 and its merits may be left to the clinical and 

 surgical bacteriologist. The object of this 

 communication is to draw attention to some 

 aspects of the theory upon which the test is 

 based. 



'' Berl. Idin. Wochenschr., 1910, No. 19, p. 879. 



'Miinchen. med. Wochenschr., 1910, LVIL, p. 

 842. 



"Gompt. rend. Soc. de biol., Paris, 1910, pp. 

 1015-1017. 



^'Ztschr. f. ImmunHatsforsch., Jena, 1910, VI., 

 pp. 101-112. 



