554 PATHOGENIC MIRCOORGANISMS 



one hour at 80 C. It is then filtered through a sterile Bcrkefcld filter. 

 The filtrate is aseptically bottled and sterilized three days at 56, half an 

 hour each day. It is then made isotonic and is ready for titration. 



Vaccine therapy in systemic gonorrheal infection has been tried 

 and is promising / though as yet unconvincing. The vaccine, if possible, 

 should be made with the organism isolated from the patient, for reasons 

 described above. Passive immunization with the serum of gonococcus- 

 immune animals has also been attempted, but records on it at present 

 are not sufficiently complete to permit definite judgment. 



SANITARY CONSIDERATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH 

 GONOCOCCUS INFECTION 



Of the three prevalent venereal infections, those caused by the 

 gonococcus are probably the most common. For more exhaustive 

 statistical studies of the prevalence of these diseases the reader is referred 

 to such books as those of Pusey, Morrow, and the larger text-books of 

 hygiene, such as that of Rosenau. Although it has been well known 

 that gonorrhea was extremely common, the astonishing prevalence 

 among young men of draft age was revealed during the late war when 

 the figures of the Surgeon General 25 show that about 5.6 per cent of 

 the men who came into the military service were infected with a veneral 

 disease. Considering that these diseases, in their early detectable acute 

 stages, do not last very long, that many cases still apparent to a slight 

 degree must surely be missed in physical examinations of large numbers 

 of men, it seems to indicate that the estimate by many authorities of 

 a prevalence of venereal disease in civilian life as high as 10 per cent 

 may be very near the truth. The percentage of gonorrhea to other 

 venereal diseases is probably pretty well exemplified by the percentage 

 of these diseases for the entire army during 1918, during which, accord- 

 ing to the Surgeon General's report, there were 44,213 cases of syphilis, 

 16,173 cases of chancroid, and 167,475 cases of gonococcus infection, a 

 total of 227,861 cases of venereal disease. The rate for syphilis was 

 17.56 per 1000, for chancroid 6.42, for gonorrhea 66.50. 



One of the great dangers in connection with gonorrheal infection has 

 been the relative indifference of the public to these diseases. In the 

 past, there has been a remarkable lack of appreciation of the seriousness 

 of the infection, which actually, in its economic and sociological impor- 



23 Rep. of Surgeon General, U. S. A., 1919, Vol. 1, p. 956. 



