Abstract
Originality is not claimed in proposing a microprecipitation test of blood serum and spinal fluid for syphilis. The Kahn<sup>1</sup>test is a modification of the Sachs-Georgi reaction,<sup>2</sup>an extract prepared according to the method of Neymann and Gager<sup>3</sup>and a short period of incubation being used. The basis of most of the precipitation reactions in syphilis is Michaelis'<sup>4</sup>observation that diluted alcoholic extract of a syphilitic liver added to heated syphilitic serum produces a precipitation. A review of the literature may be found in Kahn's book<sup>1</sup>and in an article by Kline and Young.<sup>5</sup> The time-consuming complexity, the difficulty in standardization and the possible sources of error in the complement fixation blood test have stimulated a search for a more reliable and a simpler test. The Wassermann test is an indirect, empiric procedure requiring five different animal reagents for its completion: human serum (antibody),
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