content to leave the decision
of such questions to his physician than he sometimes is, and would be
more alive to its reality and importance. The average man thinks it a
rather shadowy and indefinite affair on which to insist that he shall
keep on doctoring, especially after the test has been negative once or
twice.

Just as a negative test may occur while syphilis is still actively
present and doing damage in the body, so a positive Wassermann test may
persist long after all outward and even inward signs of the disease have
disappeared. These fixed positives are still a puzzle to physicians. But
many patients with fixed positives, if well treated regardless of their
blood test, do not seem to develop the late accidents of the disease. If
their nervous systems, on careful examination, are found not to be
affected, they are reasonably safe as far as our present knowledge
goes. People with fixed positives should accept the judgment of their
physicians and follow their recommendations for treatment without
worrying themselves gray over complications which may never develop.

+Practical Points About the Test.+--Certain practical details about this
test are of interest to every one. Blood for it is usually drawn from a
small vein in the arm. The discomfort is insignificant--no more than
that of a sharp pin-prick. Blood is drawn in the same way for other
kinds of blood tests, so that a needle-prick in the arm is not
necessarily for a Wassermann test. There is no cutting and no scar
remains. The amount of blood drawn is small and does not weaken one in
the least. The test is done on the serum or fluid part of the blood,
after the corpuscles are removed. It can also be done on the clear fluid
taken from around the spinal cord, and this is necessary in certain
syphilitic nervous diseases. There is nothing about the test that need
make anybody hesitate in taking it, and it is safe to say that, when
properly done, the information that it gives is more than worth the
trouble, especially to those who have at any time been exposed, even
remotely, to the risk of infection. But the test must be well done, by a
large hospital or through a competent physician or specialist, and the
results interpreted to the patient by the physician and not by the
laboratory that does the test, or in the light of the patient's own
half-knowledge of the matter.

Chapter VII

The Treatment of Syphilis

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

+Scientific Me