MICROCOCCUS GONOREHCEM 299 



for if they are at boiling temperature when mixed, or if 

 they are brought to the boiling temperature after mixing, 

 the albumin will be precipitated notwithstanding the 

 presence of the nitrose, which otherwise prevents this. 



Wassermann further observes that some samples of 

 serum require to be more highly diluted with water than 

 in the proportions given above ; that the agar-agar 

 should be feebly, but distinctly, alkaline to litmus, 

 causing no reddening whatever of blue litmus paper ; 

 and, finally, that the Petri dishes containing the solidi- 

 fied medium on which the cultures are growing are best 

 kept bottom upward, so as to prevent water of con- 

 densation collecting on the surface. By the use of the 

 above medium he has cultivated the gonococcus from 

 about one hundred different cases. 



LIPSCHUTZ'S MEDIUM. Lipschiitz l publishes a new 

 medium for the cultivation of micrococcus gonorrhoese. 

 He sought to find a medium that could be prepared 

 easily from substances occurring in commerce. After 

 testing a number of albuminous preparations of vege- 

 table and animal origin, he selected the pulverized egg- 

 albumen of Merck for this purpose. The culture- 

 medium is prepared as follows : A 2 per cent, solution 

 of the egg-albumin is made in water, to which is added 

 20 c.c. of a tenth-normal caustic soda solution per 100 

 c.c. of fluid, and this is allowed to stand for one-half hour, 

 being agitated from time to time. It is then filtered 

 and placed in Erlenmeyer flasks in amounts of 30 to 

 c.c., and sterilized by the intermittent method. The 

 medium, when thus prepared, is colorless, transparent, 

 of a light-yellow color, and reacts distinctly alkaline to 

 iitmus-paper. To this medium nutrient agar-agar or 



1 Lipschiitz : Centralblatt fur Bacteriologie, Originate, Bd. 36, 1904. 



