200 sometn i n g ^ ar removed, in consequence, from the circum- 

 stances under which the organism "grew'* best. 



Wherry at once applied his conclusions to the cultivation 

 of a "diplococcus" that had evaded all laboratory method. 

 Bacteriologists had long squeezed the blood of their own fingers 

 over culture media to make the micrococcus of gonorrhea 

 feel more at home; but even so had had but disappointing 

 results. "Most of those who have worked with the isolation 

 of the gonococcus from exudates admit that its cultivation is 

 attended by many difficulties and uncertainties," said Wherry 

 [52]. Following "no results" with a "number of such media" 

 he described his success in four instances of the disease in chil- 

 dren and one in an adult. It was due to the use of Martin's 

 culture mixture, he said. Fact was, that this had not been the 

 large variable in the total picture. What was necessary was 

 provision of a right air pressure. "Gonococci thrive only at a 

 partial oxygen tension." When incubated under ordinary 

 circumstances, even Martin's medium had yielded "no gono- 

 coccus colonies at all"; but Wherry's "control" tubes, hitched 

 in tandem to freshly inoculated slants of the Bacillus subtilis 

 to eat up the oxygen in the tube, "yielded hundreds." 



It marked another triumph in bacteriological cultivation. 

 But Wherry saw (in his two-page paper!) far beyond. "The 

 question is, are the aerobic strains heretofore isolated the gono- 

 coccus?" (meaning the germ capable of producing disease). 

 "Inoculation experiments performed on man answer in the 

 affirmative." Here he traced back to the ante-bacteriological 

 period when the great John Hunter had infected himself of 

 the disease. "Then we must assume that while the majority 

 of the gonococci are microaerop biles, a few become adapted 

 to aerobic growth." Ever dubious of the scientific value of 

 therapeutic evidence, Wherry had this clinical fact to support 

 his contention. Chronic gonorrheics who had not cleared in 

 years after all types of "antiseptic" treatment with perman- 

 ganate or silver, healed promptly after baths in hot water 

 which did naught but bring oxygenated blood to diseased 

 parts. But Wherry was thinking even more deeply. He con- 

 cluded: "Growth under partial oxygen tension may give us a 

 different antigen" (a different producer of an antitoxic body) . 



More detailed report (eleven pages!) followed [54]. Here 



