The Hemolytic Amboceptor 



293 



stroma dissolves, sometimes it sediments as a colorless mass to the 

 bottom of the tube. 



In the tubes containing the positive or syphilitic serum, and in 

 which there is complete complement fixation, the unaltered cor- 

 puscles sediment to the bottom of the tube, leaving a colorless 

 fluid above. 



When the complement fixation is complete there is no solution 

 of the hemoglobin. Such a result has been described by Citron as 

 + -|- + +. When the sedimented corpuscles lie at the bottom of a 

 slightly reddened fluid, the result is said to be + + + ; when at the 

 bottom of a distinctly red fluid, + +, etc. Confusion will be 

 avoided by making renorts as positive in all cases in which there is 



Fig. 105. — A typical positive Wassermann reaction with the recommended 

 controls as it appears after standing twelve hours. Corpuscular sedimentation 

 without hemolysis is seen in tubes i, 3, and 9; complete hemolysis in the others. 



a distinct red corpuscular deposit, regardless of the state of the 

 supernatant fluid, and negative when there is no such deposit. 



When we come to inquire why the supernatant fluid should be 

 red, we reach a question that is not quickly answered. In order 

 to be in a position to explain it in certain cases we introduced in our 

 series tube 9, by which to discover whether the serum under examina- 

 tion contain, as is sometimes the case in health as well as in syphilis, 

 sheep corpuscle amboceptors. If tube 9 shows such amboceptors 

 to be in the serum, it explains the redness of the fluid bathing the 

 corpuscles, and does not invalidate the test. If no such amboceptors 

 are present and the fluid is still red, it may indicate that a little of 



