GONORRHCEA. 307 



by its size, shape, and mode of reproduction" 1 

 does not seem to the writer to be sustained. 



My own observations, however, agree with those 

 of Neisser as to the constant presence of oval 

 micrococci, mostly arranged in groups of two and 

 four, in the pus of gonorrhoea invading the pus 

 cells and I have failed to observe this arrange- 

 ment in pus from other sources, although I have 

 seen it in micrococci infesting the shed epithelium 

 present in normal saliva. The observations of Dr. 

 Ogsten have, however, been far more extended 

 than my own, and he records the fact that, in a 

 certain proportion of the specimens of pus, from 

 acute abscesses and other sources, which he ex- 

 amined, this mode of grouping was seen, although 

 the chain-form was more common. He says : , 



"In some cases, unusually large cocci existed, chiefly 

 in pairs. For the most part these varieties existed in 

 separate abscesses, but it frequently occurred that an 

 abscess contained both chains and groups. Out of sixty- 

 four abscesses where this point was specially noted, 

 seventeen contained chains only, thirty-one groups only, 

 and sixteen both forms, or only pairs." 



In this, as in other infectious diseases, the only 

 satisfactory evidence that the micro-organisms 

 present in the virulent material are the infec- 

 tious agents, is to be derived from inoculation 

 experiments with a pure-culture. Unfortunately 

 for science, but not for the animals, the lower 



1 Belfield, in his Cartwright Lectures. The Medical Record, Vol. 

 XXIII. No. 10, p. 253. 



