312 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



medium, the material used to inoculate culture 

 No. 1 is not diluted in a series of cultures, as in 

 the method described on page 238, and we have 

 no longer the astonishing array of figures there 

 given to show the practical exclusion of a hypo- 

 thetical, non-living virus. When we consider that 

 material from the surface of culture No. 1 is trans- 

 ferred to the surface of culture No. 2, and so on, 

 we must admit the possibility that some of the 

 original material may have been transferred to 

 culture No. 4. 



This source of error was excluded in the follow- 

 ing experiments : 



" The pus, from which the cultures used in these 

 experiments were started, was taken from cases [of 

 gonorrhoea in the male] in the acute stage of the dis- 

 ease, and which had not been subjected to any local 

 treatment. 



"JEzp.No.4: (July, 1882). Made by Dr. Hirsch- 

 felder with material furnished by the writer. A cul- 

 ture fluid, fifteenth, containing the micrococcus of 

 gonorrhoeal pus, was introduced into the urethra3 of 

 three patients in the city and county hospital, upon 

 small wads of cotton which were thoroughly moistened 

 with the fluid, and left in situ for fifteen minutes. 



'"-Case 1. J. D. has been in bed for about nine 

 months ; caries of the vertebrae. 



"Case 2. J. B., colored; syphilitic paralysis. 



"Case 3. D. M., in bed some time; aneurism of 

 the abdominal aorta. The result was entirely nega- 

 tive. 



"Exp. No. 5 (August, 1882). A fresh culture, four- 

 teenth, from another, and recent, case was introduced 



