The problems of immunity to the various infective
diseases have proved a fruitful field of scientific
study whichhas yielded results both of fundamental
biological importance and also of far reaching practical
application. The recognition of the part played
by constituents of the blood serum in protecting the
host from invading micro -parasites was one of the
early results of immunological study, and the mechanism
of the antagonistic effects of serum towards pathogenic organisms still presents unsolved problems of
great physiological and pathological interest. Thus,
the study of such serum functions, i.e., of serology,
has been ancillary to immunological research in its
widest aspects and the demonstration of serological
reactions by in vitro tests has exerted a great influence on the progress of bacteriological and immuno-
logical science. Such studies elicited the fact
that the serum of a person or animal possessing an acquired immunity to a particular organism might exert
a specific lytic action on this organism both in vivo
and in vitro, and the exact analysis of this phenomenon
of bacteriolysis resulted from the elucidation by
Bordet in 1898 of the analogous process of serum haemolysis, i.e., the lysis of the red blood corpuscles of
a particular species towards whose red cells another animal had been immunized in a manner analogous to
artificial antibacterial immunization. Bordet showed
that serum haemolysis is due to two serum principles -
a specific antibody or new "substance" generated by
immunization, and a normal principle, complement or
alexin. The analysis of bacteriolysis revealed an
analogous mechanism. Thus, in the process of immunization against a particular organism, a new principle
makes its appearance in the serum which, along with
the normal serum complement, may exert a specific
bactericidal effect. In vitro study of this process
has shown that the immune body combines firmly with the
homologous bacteria (i.e., the antigen) and that the
antigen plus the combined antibody is then highly susceptible to the cytolytic action of the complement,
the complement combining with the complex (antigen
plus antibody).MANX MENTAL HOSPITAL: The number of cases
examined was 290, of which 46 gave positive results -
23 men and 23 women: 241 were negative - 117 men and
124 women while one man and 2 women were positive with
the Flocculation test and negative with the Wassermann
reaction. The male patients gave positive results in
16.31 per cent. and the female 15.43.ARGYLL & BUTE MENTAL HOSPITAL.- The number of
cases examined was 388 - 185 men and 203 women, and. 39
of/
228.
of the former and 33 of the latter gave positive results.
One hundred and thirty -nine men and 169
women gave negative results while one woman was posit-
:ive with the Flocculation test and negative with the
Wassermann reaction. Seven men gave a doubtful react-
:ion with the Flocculation test which were negative
with the Wasse/mann reaction. The same result was
obtained when these cases were tested one month later.
They were tested with 6 different antigens. The male
patients gave positive results in 21.08 per cent. and
the women in 16.25 per cent.1. In this series of cases studied, the Flocculation
test, if not superior to the Wassermann
reaction, has not been proved to be in any
way inferior, and its application is much
simpler.
2. The investigation suggests that while syphilis
in mental hospitals is more common among men
than among women, there is not such a wide
difference as was at one time supposed.
3. By means of laboratory methods the number of
positive results can be increased. The
percentage has been raised by 12.1 in the
case of the Manx patients and by 15.0 for
the Scottish Hospital.
4. Better conclusions can be arrived at when a
greater number of mental hospitals are available
for comparison, especially if the observations are made by the same worker
