524 BACTERIOLOGY. 



fuchsin; not so readily with methylene-blue, which is, 

 however, one of the best staining agents for demon- 

 strating its presence in pus. Beautiful double-stained 

 preparations may be made from gonorrhoeal pus by 

 treating cover-glass smears with methyl-violet and 

 eosin. Gonococci are decolorized by Gram's solution; 

 but this cannot be depended upon alone to absolutely 

 distinguish the gonococcus from all other diplococci 



FIG. 69. 



Gonococcus in pus-cells. X 1100 diameters. 



found in the urethra and vulvo-vaginal tract, for espe- 

 cially in the female other diplococci are occasionally 

 found which are also not stained by Gram's method. 

 It serves, however, to distinguish this micrococcus from 

 the common pyogenic cocci, which retain their color 

 when treated in the same way, and in the male urethra 

 it is practically certain, as no organism has been found 

 in that location which in morphology and staining is 

 identical with the gonococcus. It is certainly the most 

 distinctive characteristic of the staining properties of 



