. Applied immunology : the practical application of sera and bacterins prophylactically, diagnostically, and therapeutically. n, the more complement will befixed, less being left free for haemolysis. In a serumcontaining smaller amounts of the Wassermann sub-stance, only part of the complement will be fixed, leav-ing the remainder free, and we get partial haemolysis(see Plate II). Quantitative Estimation.—While the degree ofhaemolysis produced gives an idea of the strength ofthe reaction up to absorption of one unit of comple-ment, yet it does not make any measure of positivecases in which the
. Applied immunology : the practical application of sera and bacterins prophylactically, diagnostically, and therapeutically. n, the more complement will befixed, less being left free for haemolysis. In a serumcontaining smaller amounts of the Wassermann sub-stance, only part of the complement will be fixed, leav-ing the remainder free, and we get partial haemolysis(see Plate II). Quantitative Estimation.—While the degree ofhaemolysis produced gives an idea of the strength ofthe reaction up to absorption of one unit of comple-ment, yet it does not make any measure of positivecases in which the serum is capable of absorbing morethan one unit of complement. In other words, absenceof haemolysis as seen by the usual method means astrongly positive reaction, but indicates no differencein the degree of strength of strongly positive sera;so that a serum may show no signs of weakening under 126 APPLIED IMMUNOLOGY the effects of treatment when tested with only one unitof complement, because it was previously capable offixing two or more units. When we wish to determineaccurately the complement absorption power of a. Fig. 14.—Showing arrangement of tubes in performance of Wassermann reactionon one unknown case, with positive and negative controls. Tube containing patients serum and 1 unit of complement. Tubecontaining patients serum and 2 units of complement. Serum control tubes,without antigen. +1. +2. Tubes containing known syphilitic serum and 1 and 2 unitsof complement respectively. —1,-2. Tubes containing known non-syphilitic serumand 1 and 2 units of complement respectively. Antigen control, containinga double dose of antigen. serum, in order to gauge the effects of treatment bysubsequent tests, tubes should be prepared in doing thetest containing two, three, or more units of comple-ment in addition to the usual one unit (Fig. 14). FIXATION OF COMPLEMENT 127 By this means we can readily see whether the usualamount of the serum used is capab
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