9 6 



Scientific Proceedings (48). 



has been devised that permits of the "lipotropic" content of 

 syphilitic sera being determined by quantitative methods by com- 

 paring them with such a standard serum as we have tried un- 

 successfully to produce. Noguchi has shown that one can deter- 

 mine the absolute amount of a given syphilitic serum that will 

 give complete fixation with a fixed amount of antigen, under 

 certain conditions, at any given time. 



In addition, for purposes of comparison at different times it 

 would be necessary to have a standard antigen and a standard 

 antibody (a "synthetic syphilitic" serum) both of relatively 

 constant potency. These things are at present impossible. Quan- 

 titative standardization of the Wassermann reaction is, therefore, 

 not feasible in the present state of our knowledge. 



