DISTRIBUTION OF GONOCOCCUS. 175 



theim, and others.) The causal relationship of the 

 organism to the disease has therefore been completely 

 established, and it is interesting to note how the conditions 

 of growth and the pathogenic effects of the organism agree 

 with the characters of the natural disease. 



Intraperitoneal injections of pure cultures of the gono- 

 coccus in white mice produce a localised peritonitis with a 

 small amount of suppuration, the organisms being found in 

 large numbers in the leucocytes (Wertheim). They also 

 penetrate the peritoneal lining and are found in the sub- 

 endothelial connective tissue, but they appear to have 

 little power of proliferation, they soon disappear, and the 

 inflammatory condition does not spread. Injection of pure 

 cultures into the joints of rabbits, dogs, and guinea-pigs 

 causes an acute inflammation, which, however, soon sub- 

 sides, whilst the gonococci rapidly die out. These experi- 

 ments show that while the organism, when present in large 

 numbers, can produce a certain amount of inflammatory 

 change in these animals, it has little or no power of multi- 

 plying and spreading in their tissues. 



Distribution in the Tissues. The gonococcus having 

 been thus shown to be the direct cause of the disease, some 

 additional facts may be given regarding its presence both 

 in the primary and secondary lesions. In the human 

 urethra the gonococci penetrate the mucous membrane, 

 passing chiefly between the epithelial cells, and cause a 

 loosening and desquamation of many of the latter, and at 

 the same time inflammatory reaction in the tissues below, 

 attended with great increase of secretion. There occurs 

 also a gradually increasing emigration of leucocytes which 

 take up a large number of the organisms. It is to be noted, 

 however, that though there is such an abundant phago- 

 cytosis, the cocci within the leucocytes are usually quite 

 healthy in appearance, and the establishment of the phago- 

 cytosis is not followed by a rapid cure of the disease. The 

 organisms also penetrate the subjacent connective tissue, and 

 are especially found along with extensive leucocytic emigra- 

 tion around the lacunae. Here also many are contained 



