CHAPTER XXVII 



DIPLOCOCCUS GONORRHCE^E (GONOCOCCUS), MICROCOCCUS 

 CATARRHALIS, AND OTHER GRAM-NEGATIVE COCCI 



DIPLOCOCCUS GONORRHOEA 



NEissER, 1 in 1879, described diplococci which he had found regularly 

 in the purulent secretions of acute cases of urethritis and vaginitis and 

 in the acute conjunctivitis of the new-born. His researches were purely 

 morphological, as were the numerous confirm- 

 atory investigations which rapidly followed his 

 announcement. 



Cultivation of this diplococcus, now usually 

 spoken of as gonococcus, was not definitely suc- 

 cessful until 1885, when Bumm 2 obtained growth 

 upon tubes of coagulated human blood serum. 

 Bumm was not only able to keep the organisms 

 alive by transplantation in pure culture, but 

 produced the disease by inoculation of his cul- 

 tures upon the healthy urethra. 



Morphology and Staining. The gonococcus 

 is usually seen in the diplococcus form, the pairs 

 being characteristically flattened along the sur- 

 faces facing each other. This gives the cocci a 

 peculiar coffee-bean or biscuit shape. The size 

 of the diploforms is about 1.6 micra in the long 

 diameter, about 0.8 micron in width. Stained 

 directly in gonorrheal pus from acute cases, the 

 microorganisms are found both intra- and extra- 



cellularly, a large number of them crowded characteristically within 

 the leucocytes. They are never found within the nucleus. The 

 phagocytosis which produces this picture has beeji shown by Scholtz 3 



? 



FIG. 57. GONORRHEAL 

 Pus FROM URETHRA, 

 SHOWING THE Cocci 

 WITHIN A LEUCOCYTE. 



1 Neisscr, Cent. f. d. med. Wiss., 1879. 



2 Bumm, ''Boitr. z. Kermtniss des Gonococcus, " Wiesbaden, 1885. 



3 Sclioltz, Arch. f. Dermat., 1899. 



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