i;2 GONORRHCEA, SOFT SORE, SYPHILIS. 



with a watery solution of any of the basic aniline dyes 

 methylene-blue, fuchsin, etc. It is, however, easily de- 

 colorised, and it completely loses the stain by Gram's 

 method an important point in the microscopical examin- 

 ation. 



Cultivation of the Gonococcus. This is attended with 

 some difficulty, as the suitable media and conditions of 

 growth are somewhat restricted. The most suitable media 

 are solidified blood serum (especially human serum), 

 "blood agar," and Wertheim's medium, which consists of 

 one part of fluid serum, added to two parts of liquefied agar 

 at a temperature of 40 C., and then allowed to solidify by 

 cooling. The serum may be obtained from the blood of 

 the human placenta ; pleuritic or other effusion may also be 

 used. Growth takes place best at the temperature of 

 the body, and ceases altogether at 25 C. Cultures are 

 obtained by taking some pus on the loop of the platinum 

 needle and inoculating one of the media mentioned by 

 leaving minute quantities here and there on the surface. 

 The young colonies are visible within forty-eight hours, and 

 often within twenty-four hours. They appear around the 

 points of inoculation as small semi-transparent discs of 

 irregularly rounded shape, the margin being undulated and 

 sometimes showing small processes. The colonies vary 

 somewhat in size and tend to remain more or less separate. 

 They generally reach their maximum size on the fourth or 

 fifth day, and are usually found to be dead on the ninth 

 day, sometimes earlier. On the medium of Wertheim the 

 period of active growth and the duration of life are 

 somewhat longer. Even if impurities are present, pure 

 sub-cultures can generally be obtained from the separate 

 colonies of the gonococcus. In the early stage of the 

 disease the organism is present in the male urethra in 

 practically pure condition, and if the meatus of the urethra 

 be sterilised by washing with weak solution of corrosive 

 sublimate and then with absolute alcohol, and the material 

 for inoculation be expressed from the deeper part of the 

 urethra, cultures may often be obtained which are pure 



