A New " Wasserman Test "

Dr. August von Wassermann, distinguished German serologist, who developed the so-called"; Wassermann test "for syphilis, announced another achievement in preventive medicine-- a method of determining the presence in the body of latent tuberculosis before it becomes active in the lungs. This will enable physicians to weed out the probable victims of the dis- ease. A regime of appropriate diet, rest and fresh air, applied in special schools and at home, will then go far to prevent tuberculosis from claiming those who would formerly have been its prey. Dr. Wassermann's method--he refuses to call it a discovery--is the result of long research based on the groundwork of American and French investigators, during which he tried out more than 500 different serums. He gives credit to the United States for first rank in the world-wide fight against consumption. Most human beings carry the tubercle bacillus in their systems from early childhood, but the majority are able to throw off the disease through their natural powers of resistance. Others fail to develop this immunity and the infection flares up and becomes pulmonary. The new test consists of a serum which is mixed with a sample of the patient's blood. This serum reacts positively only when the tubercular process is still actively present, and not when it merely has existed in the past. It is not affected by syphilitic toxins. While he does not claim that his test will make possible 100% accuracy in diagnosis and complete cure of the disease, Dr. Wassermann believes that it will enable the forces which are already fighting tuberculosis with well-understood methods to get a stranglehold on it in its earliest stages and greatly reduce the present death rate.