136 AIDS TO BACTERIOLOGY 



Strangles, an equine disease, is supposed to be due to 

 streptococci, and they have been found in scarlet fever 

 (p. 195), variola (p. 200), and other diseases. 



The Gonococcus. 



Morphology. The gonococcus is a small organism 

 measuring about 0'7 /a by 0'5 ja, tending to be somewhat 

 like a coffee-bean in shape, usually grouped in pairs, the 

 flattened sides of the two organisms being adjacent, 

 occasionally single or in tetrads. It is killed in ten minutes 

 at 60 C. 



Cultural Characters. The gonococcus is aerobic. Not 

 growing on ordinary media, it can be cultivated on 

 Wertheim's medium, a mixture of equal parts of nutrient 

 agar and human blood-serum, blood-smeared agar, or 

 the medium of Christmas rabbit's blood-serum coagu- 

 lated by heat. A simple method of cultivation is to 

 deposit drops of blood obtained with aseptic precautions 

 from the finger on the surface of an agar plate, then to 

 add a drop of gonorrhceal pus, smear over the plate, and 

 incubate at blood-heat. A pure culture of the gonococcus 

 assumes a raised appearance, similar to a mulberry, and 

 is of a greyish-white colour. It is necessary to sub- 

 culture every few days, or the vitality is lost. 



Whitehouse uses ordinary agar, with the addition of 

 human blood-serum and a few drops of human urine 

 (Practitioner, 1910, 489). 



Pathogenesis. The human urethra is generally the 

 site of attack, producing an inflammation, which may be 

 followed by posterior urethritis and stricture. In gonor- 

 rhoea the pus usually contains gonococci in pure culture 

 during the first few days, but later on staphylococci and 

 streptococci will often be found. After the acute stage 

 of gonorrhoea has passed, and there is no longer any con- 

 siderable flow of pus, the gleet that follows still contains 

 the gonococcus. 



After the discharge has ceased, an examination of the 

 centrif uged deposit from the urine may reveal the organism 

 in large numbers. The organism may persist in the 

 genitals for years after apparent recovery, and the 

 patient still be capable of infecting others. In the female 

 the infection often spreads to the Fallopian tubes, 

 ovaries, and peritoneum. Gonorrhoea! ophthalmia of the 



