198 CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICRO-OBGANISMS. 



demonstrated microscopically, and have been assumed to 

 be the causal agents of the disease (Lit., pp. 15 and 35). 



Micrococcus gonorrhoea. 



Gonorrhoea Observed by Neisser in 1879 in gonorrhoeal secretions, 



and later termed gonococcus ; cocci which almost 



Morphological always occur in the form of diplococci. The elongated 



peculiarities. , -,,,., ... , . . . , 



body of the diplococcus in stained specimens shows in 

 the middle a clear line (best seen in preparations stained 

 with fuchsin), which with the highest powers appears 

 as a distinct partition ; this line divides the coccus 

 into two halves, and gives it the roll (biscuit) form. As 

 a rule the two halves are not true half circles ; at 

 times a slight concavity is present on the opposed and 

 flattened surfaces of the hemispheres. Cocci not under- 

 going division are only exceptionally seen. The average 



length of the diplococcus 

 is about 1*25 /z. ; its long 

 diameter varies between 0'8 

 and 1*6 /*., its transverse 

 diameter between 0*6 and 

 0'8 /j,. The cocci in the 

 Fig. 47. Micrococciis of gonorrhoea ffonorrhceal secretion lie 



X 800. (After Buinm.) , . a . ,, ,, 



a, free cocci. ? hie % n . r m the P US Cells 



b, cocci in pus cells. in small irregular heaps. 



o, epithelial cell containing cocci. m i 



They are not in contact 



with the cell nuclei, but that they really lie in the proto- 

 plasm of the cells appears certain from the fact that in 

 carefully prepared specimens they do not extend beyond 

 the margin of the protoplasm ; a similar inclusion in the 

 protoplasm is not observed in the case of the other non- 

 specific rnicrococci, which are also often present in 

 considerable numbers in gonorrhoeal secretion. The 

 number of cells containing cocci is greatest not so much 

 in the early period after infection, so long as the 

 secretion still remains serous, as in the later suppurative 

 stage of the gonorrhoea. The cocci become decolourised 

 in Gram's method. 



cultivation In cultivation experiments with the gonorrhoeal cocci, 

 experiments. ^ e saprophytic organisms present in the secretion have 



