American Decades
"The Kahn Test for Syphilis in the Public Health Laboratory"
Journal article
By: C.C. Young
Date: February 1923
Source: Young, C.C. "The Kahn Test for Syphilis in the Public Health Laboratory." The American Journal of Public Health 13, no. 2 (February 1923): 96–99.
About the Scientist: Reuben L. Kahn (1887–1974) is most famous for simplifying the Wassermann test for syphilis in 1923. In the 1950s, however, he also developed the universal serological reaction, and his work in immunology was highly respected.
Introduction
An extremely virulent strain of syphilis rampaged across Europe around 1500. Each nation had a different name for it, and most labeled it with the name of their enemy; the French, for instance, called it the Spanish disease. By 1550 the symptoms and progression of syphilis were very similar to today's disease. Treatment, though, was not soon in coming. The only possible cure was mercury, but this...
[The entire page is 1853 words long]
1920's Medicine and Health Primary Sources
- The Compulsory Insurance Debate
- Women in Science
- "Police Veto Halts Birth Control Talk; Town Hall in Tumult"
- The Care and Feeding of Children
- "The Kahn Test for Syphilis in the Public Health Laboratory"
- Insulin
- "Scarlet Fever"
- "Tularemia"
- Smallpox
- "Cancer Studies in Massachusetts"
- "The Wealthiest Nation in the World: Its Mothers and Children"
- "On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium, with Special Reference to Their Use in the Isolation of B. Influenzæ"
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
