Wassermann Reaction. 



137 



may return to the normal level on the fourth or fifth day. In 

 general the larger doses have produced the more marked decrease. 

 The total nitrogen, urea and sodium chloride decrease fairly pro- 

 portionately to the water. During the period of drug action, 

 that is when the output of urine is definitely decreased, the renal 

 function seems unimpaired, since water, urea and sodium chloride 

 added to the regular diet, are excreted by the kidney in a normal 

 fashion. Phenolsulphonephthalin also is excreted in the same 

 percentage as during the control period. We have analyzed the 

 blood during the control period and during the period of drug 

 action. In this latter period, when the urine output is below the 

 normal, the non-protein nitrogen, urea nitrogen and sodium 

 chloride in the blood are decreased. This does not appear to be 

 due to an increase in water in the blood since the percentage of 

 water is also slightly decreased. 



From these results we conclude that there may be two factors 

 which determine the diuretic action of these drugs in the dog and 

 probably in man, one an action on the kidney, similar to that in 

 the rabbit tending to cause diuresis, a second and determining one 

 on the tissues in general, as a result of which water and excretory 

 products are held back by the tissues. 



82 (1260) 



Cholesterinized alcoholic extracts versus acetone insoluble frac- 

 tion of pure tissue lipoids as antigen for Wassermann reaction. 



By J. Bronfenbrenner and M. J. Schlesinger. 



[From the Research Laboratories of the Western Pennsylvania 

 Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.\ 



In the last few years a number of workers in this country have 

 reported favorably on the use of cholesterinized antigens for 

 Wassermann reaction. According to some reports, these so-called 

 reinforced antigens gave even more satisfactory results than the 

 acetone-insoluble fraction of tissue lipoids advocated by Noguchi. 1 



1 Noguchi and Bronfenbrenner, Jour, of Experimental Medicine, 191 1, Vol. 

 XIII, No. 1, p. 43. 



