302 The Philippine Journal of Science m» 



of the blood and detection of latent cases, reference should be 

 made to the work of Meyerstein(20) in connection with the 

 Wassermann reaction on malarious subjects. He has shown that 

 the Wassermann reaction is frequently positive in tertian mala- 

 ria during the first days following access of fever. This partic- 

 ularly applies with the ethereal heart extract of Lesser. A 

 positive reaction is seldom obtained after the tenth day, partic- 

 ularly in intractable cases with a tendency to relapse. 



Meyerstein holds that the reaction depends on, but does not 

 completely coincide with, the presence of malaria parasites in 

 the blood. He found that the Wassermann reaction dissap- 

 peared simultaneously with the parasites under the influence 

 of quinine and also in two cases treated with neosalvarsan. The 

 conclusions he draws are: That it is unlikely that the disap- 

 pearance of the Wassermann reaction during the treatment of 

 a case of malaria signifies a final cure; and that, on the other 

 hand, cases of malaria that — apart from any question of syphi- 

 lis — give a positive Wassermann reaction must be considered 

 as requiring further treatment. 



The outlining of a method of systematic examination of mil- 

 itary recruits along the lines laid down in this paper naturally 

 presupposes a comparative study of the work of the several 

 men cited, and the provisional scheme that follows is only put 

 forward as a suggestion of a general method which might, 

 however, be considerably modified with experience. It is taken 

 for granted that all recruits will receive a thorough physical 

 examination and that this, in the natural course of events, 

 would include an inquiry into the previous history of malaria; 

 palpation of the spleen, bearing in mind the tropical splenome- 

 galies of unknown etiology, anaemia, jaundice, cachexia, and 

 the like. 



The laboratory examination of the recruits might profitably 

 be taken up in three stages as follows : 



FIRST STAGE 



One Ross film and one or two thin blood smears from each 

 recruit. The thick film is to be used for the detection of the 

 presence of parasites, and the thin films for the identification 

 of species, if the thick film does not yield that information 

 through the presence of crescents; these slides to be taken on 

 two successive days, the morning of the first day, and the late 

 afternoon or evening of the second day if the first specimen is 

 negative. A careful differential leucocyte count should be made 



