396 Gonorrhea 



Young* had excellent success with a hydrocele-agar prepared as 

 follows: 



"The fluid (hydrocele or ascitic) is obtained sterile, the locality of the puncture 

 being carefully sterilized by modern surgical methods, the sterile trocar covered 

 at its external end with sterilized gauze so as not to be infected by the operator's 

 hand, and the fluid collected in sterile flasks, the sterile stoppers being then re- 

 placed. Collecting the fluid in this way we have very rarely had it contaminated, 

 often keeping it several months before using it. The fluid is mixed with ordi- 

 nary nutrient agar. A number of common slants are put in the autoclave for 

 five minutes. This liquefies the agar and at the same time thoroughly sterilizes 

 the tubes and cotton stoppers. The slants are then put in a water-bath at 55C. 

 so as not to coagulate the albumin when mixed with the agar. The stopper hav- 

 ing been removed from a small flask of hydrocele fluid, the top of the flask is 

 flamed and the albuminous fluid is then poured into an agar tube (the top of 

 which has also been flamed) in proportions a little more than one to two." The 

 medium can be allowed to solidify in tubes or can be poured into Petri dishes. 



When one of the colonies was transferred to a tube of human 

 blood-serum, or of one of the above-described mixtures obliquely 

 coagulated, isolated little gray colonies occur, later becoming con- 

 fluent and producing a delicate smeary layer upon the medium. 

 The main growth is surrounded by a thin, veil-like extension which 

 gradually fades away at the edges. A slight growth occurs in the 

 water of condensation. 



Heimanf found that the gonococcus grows best in a mixture of 

 i part of pleuritic fluid and 2 parts of 2 per cent. agar. WrightJ 

 prefers a mixture of urine, blood-serum, peptone, and agar-agar. 



Wassermann used a mixture of 15 cc. of pig-serum, 35 cc. of 

 water, 3 cc. of glycerin, and 2 per cent, of nutrose. The nutrose is 

 dissolved by boiling and the solution sterilized. This is then added 

 to agar, in equal parts, and used in plates. || 



Laitinen** found agar-agar mixed with one-third to one-half its 

 volume of cyst or ascitic fluid, and bouillon containing i per cent, 

 of peptone and 0.5 per cent, of sodium chlorid, mixed with one- 

 third to one-half its volume of cyst or ascitic fluid, very satisfactory. 

 The gonococcus could be kept alive upon these media for two months. 

 Laitinen found that the gonococcus produces acids in the early 

 days of its development, and alkalies subsequently. He was unable 

 to isolate any toxin from the cultures. 



Vital Resistance. Authorities agree that the gonococcus has very 

 slight power of heat endurance. Wertheim found the optimum 

 temperature of cultivation to be 39 to 4oC., and saw no harm 

 result from exposure to 42C. It is killed in a few minutes at 55C. 

 The gonococci, though not easily cultivated, are said to resist 

 unfavorable conditions, especially drying, very well. Kratter was 



* " Contributions to the Science of Medicine by the Pupils of William M. 

 Welch," Baltimore, 1900, p. 677. 



t 'Medical Record," Dec. 19, 1886. 

 J 'Amer. Jour. Med. Sci.," Feb., 1895. 

 'Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1897. 



|| 'See "Text-Book of Bacteriology," by Hiss and Zinsser, 1910, p. 383. 

 ** 'Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," June i, 1898, vol. xn, No. 20, p. 874. 



