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Wassermann definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: German bacteriologist who developed a diagnostic test for syphilis (1866-1925) [syn: Wassermann, August von Wassermann]
2: a blood test to detect syphilis; a complement fixation test is used to detect antibodies to the syphilis organism treponema; a positive reaction indicates the presence of antibodies and therefore syphilis infection [syn: Wassermann test, Wasserman reaction, Wassermann]

Merriam Webster's

biographical name August von 1866-1925 German bacteriologist

Britannica Concise

German novelist. After an unsettled youth, he became well known with such works as The Jews of Zirndorf (1897), Caspar Hauser (1908), and The World's Illusion (1919). His popularity was greatest in the 1920s and '30s, when he wrote The Maurizius Case (1928), treating the theme of justice with the carefully plotted suspense of a detective story, and extended the tale of a post-World War I youth into a trilogy with Etzel Andergast (1931) and Kerkhoven's Third Existence (1934). He is frequently compared to F. Dostoyevsky in both his moral fervor and his tendency to sensationalism..German bacteriologist. With Albert Neisser (1855-1916) he developed a test for the antibody to the spirochete that causes syphilis in 1906. That test, along with other procedures, is still used to diagnose syphilis. He is also noted for developing tests for tuberculosis. With Wilhelm Kolle he wrote the major Handbook of Pathogenic Microorganisms (6 vols., 1903-9).