CHAPTER XXV 



DIPLOCOCCUS GONORRHCE.E (GONOCOCCUS), MICROCOCCUS 

 CATARRHALIS, AND OTHER GRAM-NEGATIVE COCCI 



DIPLOCOCCUS GONORRHCEJE 



NEISSER/ in 1879, described diplococci which he had found regularly 

 in the purulent secretions of acute cases of urethritis and vaginitis and 

 in the acute conjunctivitis of the new-born. His researches were purely 

 morphological, as were the numerous confirmatory investigations which 

 rapidly followed his announcement. 



Cultivation of this diplococcus, now usually spoken of as gonococcus, 

 was not definitely successful until 1885, when Bumm 2 obtained growth 

 upon tubes of coagulated human blood serum. Bumm was not only 

 able to keep the organisms alive by transplantation in pure culture, but 

 produced the disease by inoculation of his cultures upon the healthy 

 urethra. 



Morphology and Staining. The gonococcus is usually seen in the 

 diplococcus form, the pairs being characteristically flattened along the 

 surfaces facing each other. This gives the cocci a peculiar coffee-bean 

 or biscuit shape. The size of the diploforms is about 1.6 micra in the 

 long diameter, about 0.8 micron in width. Stained directly in gonorrheal 

 pus from acute cases, the microorganisms are found both intra- and 

 extracellularly, a large number of them crowded characteristically 

 within the leucocytes. They are never found within the nucleus. The 

 phagocytosis. which produces this picture has been shown by Scholtz 3 

 and others to take place in the free secretions, not in the depth of the 

 tissues. The intracellular position, which is of considerable diagnostic 

 importance, is lost to a great extent in secretions from chronic cases. 

 In smears made from pure cultures the arrangement in groups of two 

 may often be less marked than in pus, clusters of eight or more being 

 common. 



1 Neisser, Cent. f. d. med. Wiss., 1879. 



2 Bumm, " Beitr. z. Kenntniss des Gonococcus," Wiesbaden, 1885. 



3 Scholtz, Arch, f, Pennat,, 1899. 



330 



