PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF THE TREPONEMAL WASSERMANN REACTION (T.W.R.)* BY

Most of the relatively few papers on the trepone-mal complement-fixation reaction give good reports of this test. Thus, for example, Garson and Portnoy (1957) report that the treponemal comple-ment-fixation test gives good reproducibility, is at least as sensitive in early syphilis as the conventional reagin tests, and has a greater value in confirming a diagnosis of early syphilis than the treponemal immobilization test (T.P.I.). According to these investigators, whilst agreement between the two tests is not absolute, almost complete agreement is attained in the non-treponemal reacting group of sera. These workers, however, do not mention the high percentage of sero-reactors amongst some coloured people. In Great Britain 62 per cent. o