THE COMPLEMENT DEVIATION REACTION IN TUBERCULOSIS

For a number of years, continental and American laboratory workers have endeavored to elaborate a reliable technic, based on the deviation of complement, for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The clinician would welcome such a test to the degreethat it would shift the burden of diagnosis to his laboratory co-worker. But the test, to be useful from this point of view, would have to be accurate almost to the point of infallibility; doubtful, borderline reactions would defeat its very object. Perhaps it is our good fortune that the realization of such an ideal is not in prospect—fortunate so far that its inherent tendency would be to make our diagnosis and clinical judgment in tuberculosis less exact and reliable rather than more so. Tuberculosis is the disease of all others that requires sagacious clinical judgment, along with discreet management: judgment based on all available facts—on a sane evaluation of the physical examination