9 2 



Scientific Proceedings (57). \ 



advantage that it is necessary- to keep on hand a number of 

 tuberculous guinea-pigs; in addition the test was found non- 

 reliable, as in case of sputum, for instance, the injection of a 

 tuberculous or even normal sputum under the skin of a normal 

 guinea-pig caused the appearance of a local reaction very similar 

 to one appearing in a tuberculous guinea-pig. By the method 

 described by me, 1 not only the serum of a patient, but also all kinds 

 of pathological material can be examined by previously injecting 

 it in a normal guinea-pig and subsequently examining the blood 

 of this guinea-pig by the serum skin method described. 



51 (868) 



A preliminary communication on complement fixation test in 

 tuberculoses with Besredka's antigen. 



By J. Bronfenbrenner. 



[From the Pathological and Research Laboratories of the Western 

 Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.] 



At the suggestion of Professor M. Besredka and through his 

 kindness in sending the tuberculin prepared by him as described 

 in his communication before the Academy- of Sciences, 2 I started 

 a series of blood tests in tuberculosis. As the antigen contained 

 egg yolk it was decided to carry in each case a control with a pure 

 lipoid antigen (Noguchi). 3 In the first hundred cases I found a 

 surprising number giving positive tuberculosis as well as positive 

 Wassermann reaction. A special study of the possible coexistence 

 of the two diseases was made, and a solution of the problem was 

 attempted by the following several ways. (1) Seven patients 

 giving both W. R. and T. R. positive were subjected to a rigorous 

 anti-syphilitic treatment, and at present five of them have lost 

 the W. R., tuberculosis reaction persisting. (2) The presence of 

 the two antibodies was proven by independent titration of each 

 with five units of corresponding antigens. (3) It was found that 

 the inactivation of serum containing both antibodies did not affect 



1 At the meeting of American Society of Bacteriologists, Montreal, January. 1914. 



2 Comptes Rendus de V Acad, des Sciences, t. 156, p. 1633. 



3 Noguchi and Bronfenbrenner, /. of Ex per. Med., Vol. XIII, No. 1, 191 1, p. 43. 



