Serum Diagnosis of Syphilis. 



77 



mammals. The object of this study was first, to repeat the earlier 

 experiments of Minkowski ; second, to find out if slight changes 

 of method would perhaps serve to show a synthesis of uric acid ; 

 and third, to consider the problem experimentally in relation to a 

 man suffering from chronic gout. In gout it is possible that an 

 abnormal synthesis of uric acid occurs, and also, since the uri- 

 colytic powers of the gouty organism are less active than normal, 

 a synthesis masked in a normal person might be evident in a per- 

 son suffering from gout. 



The results of the experiments may be briefly summarized as 

 follows : when lactic acid is administered to a normal man who has 

 been fed on apurin free diet, there is no resulting increase of uric acid 

 in the urine, even when the amounts of lactic acid are very large 

 — /. e., 20 grams in a dose. In a dog on a purin free diet (milk, 

 eggs, and rice), following the hypodermic injection of lactic acid, 

 and of lactic acid and urea, there was in both instances a slight 

 increase in the percentage of total nitrogen excreted as uric acid. 

 The absolute amounts were also slightly increased as were those 

 of allantoin. These figures are difficult to interpret and we are 

 not prepared to assert without further investigation that there is a 

 synthesis of uric acid in the manner described. 



In a case of chronic gout the effects of the lactic acid and urea 

 were entirely obscured by the irregularity of nitrogen excretion ; 

 periods of nitrogen retention and excretion making it impossible 

 to estimate the effects of the treatment. 



36 (374) 



Some critical considerations on the serum diagnosis of syphilis. 

 By HIDEYO NOGUCHI. 



[From the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.'\ 

 In its application to the detection of syphilis antibody the 

 Bordet-Gengou phenomenon of complement fixation has received 

 but little consideration in its quantitative aspect. As will pres- 

 ently be pointed out it is only by respecting the quantitative rela- 

 tions of all reagents concerned that the test becomes reliable and 

 delicate. Even with an adequate quantity of antigen, blood cell 

 suspension and the patient's serum the detection of the antibody 



