Defensive Ferments 143 



The general consensus of opinion is in favor of this reaction as being 

 a useful adjunct in making the diagnosis of pregnancy. But its 

 applicability may not be limited to the diagnosis of pregnancy for 

 Freund and Abderhalden,* Frank and Heimanf and many others 

 have used it as an adjunct in the diagnosis of cancer, and various 

 other investigators have shown that modifications of the method 

 makes it applicable for purposes of diagnosis or investigation of other 

 conditions in which defensive enzymes may be present in the blood. 

 For each of these investigations the specific substratum must be pre- 

 pared, and in making each test, the application of the enzyme-con- 

 taining serum to the sterUe and appropriate substratum must be made 

 in the tested thimbles with the precautions given above. 



The method is not exclusively adapted for investigation of proteo- 

 lytic enzymes in the serum, but to diastatic and lipolytic ferments 

 as well and Abderhalden has shown that it has uses in these fields. 

 How much importance attaches to the enzymes thus mobilized in 

 the blood in the conditions comprehended in the studies of immunity 

 is as yet uncertain. That there is some bearing of the one upon the 

 other cannot be doubted. The Abderhalden reactions seem to be 

 less specific than the immunity reactions and appear more as reac- 

 tions en gros, while the immunity reactions previously studied 

 were reactions en detail, but it may well be that this apparent differ- 

 ence depends upon the newness of the former reactions and the 

 crudity of the methods employed as contrasted with the more 

 elaborate study of the latter and the more delicate methods used. 



* Miinch. med. Wochenschrift, 1913, xiv, 763. 

 t Berl. klin. Wochenschrift, 1913, L, No. 14. 



