174 GONORRHOEA* SOFT SORE, SYPHILIS. 



successively inoculated with the pus or other material in 

 the same manner as gelatine tubes for ordinary plates 

 (vide p. 59). To each tube is added an equal part of 

 ordinary agar which has been thoroughly liquefied by 

 heating and allowed to cool also to 40 C. The mixture 

 is then thoroughly shaken up and quickly poured out on a 

 plate or Petri's dish and allowed to solidify, the plates being 

 then incubated at a temperature of 37 C. The colonies 

 of the gonococcus are just visible in twenty-four hours, and 

 are seen both in the substance of the medium and on the 

 surface. The deep colonies when examined with a lens 

 are minute and slightly nodulated spheres, sometimes show- 

 ing little processes, whilst those on the surface are thin 

 discs of larger diameter with wavy margin and rather darker 

 centre. In this way the gonococcus may.be separated from 

 fluids which are contaminated with a considerable number 

 of other organisms. 



Relations to the Disease. The gonococcus is invari- 

 ably present in the urethral discharge in gonorrhoea, and 

 also in other parts of the genital tract when these are the 

 seat of true gonorrhceal infection. Its presence in these 

 different positions has been demonstrated not only by 

 microscopic examination but also by culture. From the 

 description of the conditions of growth in culture, it will be 

 seen that a life outside the body in natural conditions is 

 practically impossible a statement which corresponds with 

 the clinical fact that the disease is always transmitted 

 directly by contagion. Inoculations of pure cultures on 

 the urethra of lower animals, and even of apes, is followed 

 by no effect, but a similar statement can be made with 

 regard to inoculations of gonorrhoeal pus itself. In fact, 

 hitherto it has been found impossible to reproduce the 

 disease by any means in the lower animals. On a consider- 

 able number of occasions inoculations of pure cultures 

 have been made on the human urethra, both of the male 

 and female, and the disease, with all its characteristic 

 symptoms, has resulted. (Such experiments have been 

 performed independently by Bumm, Steinschneider, Wer- 



