The enormous amount of work that has been done on the Wassermann reaction appears to have established conclusively its value as a diagnostic means in syphilis. For, while the reaction can not be considered as specific in the bacteriologic sense of the word, as was first believed on theoretical grounds to be the case, it is apparently characteristic; and the few other diseases, principally the other spirochete and the trypanosome infections, that give the reaction, are of such rare occurrence in the temperate zones as to be practically negligible in this connection.
Unfortunately, the test as at present used is altogether too complicated to be available for the general practitioner, and considerable simplification will be necessary before it can be placed on the plane of, for instance, the agglutination reaction in typhoid.
Studies of the reaction have recently been made from an analytical viewpoint, and the results would seem to