Über die Meinicke-Klärungsreaktion im Liquor Cerebrospinalis

Presidential Address to the M.S.S.V.D. Systemic disease and the biological false positive reaction.

“…It was soon demonstrated that the test was non-specific in the usual immunological sense, when Marie and Levaditi (1907) prepared a successful antigen from the livers of non-syphilitic, new-born babies. Michaelis (1907) showed that flocculation techniques could be used to demonstrate syphilitic antibodies in the serum, but the method did not become popular until it was reintroduced by Meinicke (1917). The fact that saline or better still alcoholic extracts of normal tissue provide satisfactory antigens for the Wassermann reaction is a paradox that has not been completely resolved.…”