Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 February 2018
The sero-diagnosis of a syphilitic infection, commonly known as the “Wassermann reaction,” is based on the work published by Bordet in 1899, and Bordet and Gengou in 1901. It was there shown that the absence of hæmolysis could be made available as a naked-eye test indicative of a specific infection, and that the occurrence of hæmolysis negatived the existence of such infection. This reaction they showed was due to the fact that the anti-bodies produced by an infection were able to fix complement in the presence of the corresponding antigen, so that an attempt to complete an hæmolytic system after complement had been absorbed was ineffectual, and the homologous red blood-corpuscle remained intact, though exposed to the action of an inactivated homologous hæmolytic serum.
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