CHAPTER VII. 

 GONORRHCEA, SOFT SORE, SYPHILIS. 



GONORRHCEA. 



Introductory. The micrococcus now known to be the 

 cause of gonorrhoea, and often spoken of as the gonococcus, 

 was first described by Neisser, who in 1879 gave an account 

 of its microscopical characters as seen in the pus of gonor- 

 rhceal affections, both of the urethra and of the con- 

 junctiva. He considered that this organism was peculiar 

 to the disease, and that its characters were distinctive. The 

 earlier announcements regarding pure cultures obtained on 

 peptone-gelatine and other media, on which it does not really 

 grow, are now known to be erroneous, but later it was 

 successfully isolated and cultivated on solidified blood 

 serum by Bumm and others. Its characters have since 

 been minutely studied, and by inoculations of cultures on 

 the human subject its causal relationship to the disease has 

 been conclusively established. 



The Gonococcus. Microscopical Characters. The 

 organism of gonorrhoea is a small micrococcus which very 

 often occurs in the diplococcus form, the adjacent margins of 

 the two cocci being flattened, or even slightly concave, so that 

 between there is a small oval interval which does not stain. 

 An appearance is thus presented which has been compared 

 to that of two beans placed side by side (vide Fig. 48). 

 When division takes place in the two members of a diplo- 



