Specific and Non-Specific Serum Reactions in Typhus Fever

Abstract

1. In all species of animals tested—rabbit, guinea-pig, chicken and horse—normal agglutinins for B. agglutinabilis U₂ are far more abundant than those for B. proteus X 19.2. Human serum reacts in the same manner. Wassermann negative sera have been employed as normal sera. Their reaction in Weltmann's globulin test was also negative.3. Wassermann positive sera from cases of syphilis and sera from lepers give distinctly higher agglutination reactions with U₂ than normal human sera. On X 19, however, those sera do not exercise any increased agglutinating action.4. Similar though somewhat stronger reactions with U₂ are obtained with typhus sera. However, this reaction is far from being uniformly positive in typhus, while this is the case with the X 19 reaction.5. The discordance between these results and those published by Wilson and by Fletcher, Lesslar and Lewthwaite is due to the failure by these workers to employ controls of suitable type.6. In syphilis and leprous sera high titres of agglutination with U₂ coincide with globulin-increase as indicated by the Weltmann reaction.7. The summation effect of the non-specific agglutination by gelatine and the action of specific immune agglutinins, described by Weil, is again demonstrated.8. The combined action of an abundance of preformed normal agglutinins and of augmented serum colloids is suggested as one of the factors involved in increased heterologous agglutination (polyagglutination).9. B. agglutinabilis U₂ is a typical representative of “polyagglutinable” organisms; B. proteus X 19, however, is not liable to the action of “polyagglutinating” sera.