Belden (United Kingdom)

METHODS USEDi.The Wassermann Test (W.R.) THIS was the No. i method of Harrison described in the "Medical Research Committee Special Report Series, No. I4," London (I9I8), and modified by Wyler (I929); it requires the use of a constant volume of patient's serum (I: 5 dilution) and a quantitative estimation of the strength of the reactions by means of 3 and 5 minimal haemolytic doses (m.h.d.) of guinea-pig complement.The original method was employed but minor modifications introduced were the use of sheep heart antigen (Burroughs Wellcome & Co., London) and the mixing of complement and antigen before addition to the patient's serum.With a view to standardisation, preserved guinea-pig complement (Sonnenschein, I930; Green, I938) was used, and the cells were obtained from two sheep maintained in the animal house of the laboratory, and each bled on alternate weeks. The Meinicke TestThis was the Meinicke-Klarungs reaction (M.K.R.II),Meinicke and Grin (I932).The principle of the test is the mixing of o05 c.c. of two different preparations of the antigen with 0.2 c.c. and o-I c.c. respectively of unin- * This work was done at the Liverpool City Laboratories during I937 and I938.