Pathogenic Bacteria 335 



common cold," and this unfortunate notion is partly responsible for 

 the more than one million new cases of this disease reported an- 

 nually in the United States. The unreported cases must be added 

 to this figure. While the disease is normally an infection of the 

 genito-urinary tract, the organisms can leave these areas and 

 become established in other parts of the body, leading to gonorrheal 

 rheumatism (an arthritis-like affliction) and to blindness if the 

 organisms are transferred to the eyes as a result of unhygienic 

 habits of infected individuals. Damage to the heart valves is not 

 uncommon. Untreated cases of gonorrhea can lead to sterility, 

 both in males and in females. 



The disease is usually easy to diagnose in its primary stages. 

 The microbes affect the mucous surfaces of the reproductive 

 organs of men and women, with a subsequent discharge of white 

 pus (leukorrhea) in from three to five days after exposure. The 

 presence in the pus of gram negative, intracellular diplococci 

 morphologically resembling gonococci is laboratory confirmation 

 of a clinical case of the disease. Not all discharges from the genito- 

 urinary tract, however, are the result of gonorrhea; other causes 

 may be responsible. 



A few startling statistics should help to emphasize the magni- 

 tude of this venereal disease in the United States, where the 

 population is supposedly the best informed in the world. Nearly 

 6% of all males examined for military service are found to be in- 

 fected with gonorrhea. The mean age for acquiring the infection 

 is twenty-nine years for white males, twenty-four years for negroes, 

 and twenty-four years for white females. Almost 250,000 potential 

 mothers acquire the disease annually. In 1910 24% of 351 persons 

 admitted to schools for the blind had lost their sight as the result 

 of gonorrheal infection acquired from infected mothers. The 

 highest disease incidence is found in cities having populations 

 ranging between 50,000 and 500,000. The rate is lowest in metro- 

 politan areas and in rural communities. The need for sex educa- 

 tion and the moral issues involved in venereal disease control will 

 be left for discussion in other books. The statistics speak for 

 themselves. 



