Abstract
Morell and Shwartzman 1 recently reported the successful use of dialysis in the preparation and purification of certain immunologically active bacterial products, particularly those of the meningococci. From their work it would appear that nondialysates of this kind carry a rather high degree of specificity. It was with the idea of improving upon the specificity of the Weil-Felix reaction that the work here reported was begun. Using their methods, we were able to secure immunologically reactive products from proteose-peptone cultures of Eberthella typhosa, Salmonella paratyphi, Salmonella schottmulleri, and Proteus X19 (0504 strain) which flocculated with homologous immune (rabbit) serum. Four days were allowed for culturing and 4 days for dialysis in each instance. Serum from proven cases of endemic typhus cases also flocculated with the Proteus non-dialysate. Tests were carried out by layering dilutions of the nondialysate over whole serum. In the positive reactions a visible flocculate formed within 30 minutes at room temperature, about 23°C. Agglutination tests with the same bacterial antigens were carried out at the same time.
The results (Table I) show that typhus serum flocculated with the nondialysates of Proteus X19 at reasonably high titers, at the same time failing to do so at similarly high titers with the nondialysates of E. typhosn, S. paratyphi, and S. schottmulleri. The agglutinations here recorded of bacterial suspensions by the same serum are not out of keeping with the established relationships between the organisms used. Since the Weil-Felix reaction is still considered as one of the heterophile phenomena, it would scarcely be expected that this method would discover a strict degree of specificity between the nondialysates and the immune substances present in typhus serum. Still, the flocculation tests seemed to exhibit more specificity than was found in agglutination tests with typhus serum.
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