CHAPTER XXX. 



MICROCOCCUS GONORRHOEA (OONOCOCCUS NEISSER). 



THIS micrococcus was first observed by Neisser, in 

 1879, in gonorrhoeal discharges, and described by him 

 under the name of " gonococcus"; but though several 

 attempted to discover a medium upon which it might 

 be cultivated, it was reserved for Bumm, in 1885, to 

 obtain it in pure culture and isolate it and then prove 

 its infective virulence by inoculation into man. Since 

 that time the gonococcus has been cultivated on various 

 media, which, though modifications of Bumm's, are an 

 improvement on his original method, and as the result 

 of various inoculation experiments there now remains 

 no doubt that this organism is the specific cause of 

 gonorrhoea in man. 



Morphological Characters. Micrococci, occurring 

 mostly in the form of diplococci that is, in pairs or 

 in groups of four. The bodies of the diplococci are 

 elongated, and, as shown in stained preparations, have 

 an unstained division or interspace between two flat- 

 tened surfaces facing one another, which gives them 

 their characteristic " coffee-bean " or "biscuit" shape 

 (Fig. 68). The diameter of an associated pair of cells 

 varies from 0.8// to 1.6// in the long diameter 

 average about 1.25// by 0.6/* to 0.8/u. in the cross 

 diameter. In gonorrhoea gonococci are found mostly 

 in small, irregular groups in or upon the pus-cells, and 



