CHAPTER VIII 

 GONORRHEA 



MICROCOCCUS GONORRHOEA (NEISSER) 



General Characteristics. A minute, biscuit-shaped, non-motile, non-sporo 

 genous, non-liquefying, non-chromogenic, non-flagellate, aerobic, strictly para 

 sitic coccus, not stained by Gram's method, cultivable upon special media, an< 

 pathogenic for man only. 



All authorities now accept the "gonococcus" as the specifi 

 cause of gonorrhea. It was first observed in the urethral and con 

 junctival secretions of gonorrhea and purulent ophthalmia b; 

 Neisser* in 1879. 



Bummf found other cocci closely resembling the gonococcu 

 in the inflamed urethra, and points out that neither its shape no 

 its position in the cells can be regarded as characteristic, but tha 

 failure to stain by Gram's method can alone enable us to say wit] 

 certainty that biscuit-shaped cocci found in urethral pus ar 

 gonococci. 



Distribution. The gonococcus is a purely parasitic pathogeni 

 organism. It can be found in the urethral discharges of gonorrhe; 

 from the beginning until the end of the disease, and often for man; 

 months and even years after recovery from it. After the perioc 

 of creamy pus has passed, its numbers are usually outweighed b] 

 other pyogenic organisms. WertheimJ cultivated the gonococcu 

 from a case of chronic urethritis of two years' standing, and prove< 

 its virulence by producing, experimental gonorrhea in a humai 

 being. The organisms are chiefly found within the pus-cells o 

 attached to the surface of epithelial cells, and should always b< 

 sought for as diagnostic of gonorrhea, as purulent urethritis is some 

 times caused by other organisms, as Bacillus coli communis am 

 Staphylococcus pyogenes. 



Morphology. The organisms occur in pairs. Each pair of younj 

 cocci is composed of two spherical organisms, but as they grow olde 

 the inner surfaces become flattened and separated from one anothe 

 by a narrow interval, so that they somewhat resemble a coffee 

 bean. A pair of the cocci resembles the German biscuit, and i 

 described by the Germans as semmelformig. 



* "Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissenschaft," 1879, No. 28. 



t "Der Mikroorganismus der gonorrhoischen Schleimhauterkrankungen,' 

 "Gonococcus Neisser," second edition, 1887. , 



J " Archiv f. Gynakologie," 1892, Bd. XLII, Heft i. 



Van der Pluyn and Loag, " Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," Feb. 28, 1895 

 Bd. xyn, Nos. 7, 8, p. 233. 



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