234: GOXOEKHCEA. 



a burning, smarting sensation in the fossa uavicularis, which was 

 followed by a typical gonorrhoea two days later. In the last case 

 the pus was kept at the temperature of the body, which was not 

 done in the other experiments. Two experiments he made with 

 pus exposed to a temperature near the freezing-point, with negative 

 results in both instances. 



2. In animals. No uniform results have been obtained by inocu- 

 lation experiments in animals, not because the gonococci are not the 

 cause of gonorrhoea, but on account of the immunity of most animals 

 to this form of infection. Lundstrom claims that he obtained a 

 pure culture upon Koch's gelatin, and that inoculations with this 

 produced typical gonorrhoea in dogs; in the purulent secretion 

 numerous gonococci could be found. 



Bumm states that pure gonorrhoeal pus can be injected into the 

 subcutaneous cellular tissue of animals without causing reaction, 

 and that if, after twenty-four hours, an incision is made, and some 

 of the pus which was. injected is removed, it will be found that the 

 cells are still in good condition, but that the cocci have disappeared. 



That the gonococcus has a special predilection for the mucous 

 membranes is well shown by the regularity with which purulent 

 ophthalmia is produced by the infection of the conjunctiva with 

 gonorrhoeal pus. 



The ease and regularity with which gonorrhoea can be produced 

 in man by inoculation with a pure culture of the gouococcus, fur- 

 nishes the punctum saliens which characterizes this microbe as the 

 materia peccans of gonnorrhoea. 



ACTION OF GONOCOCCUS ON THE TISSUES. The presence of the 

 gouococcus so far has been demonstrated in the urethra, bladder, 

 kidney (Bockhardt), in perimetritic abscesses following gonorrhoea, 

 in the purulent contents of joints in gonorrhoeal synovitis, the con- 

 junctiva, rectum (Bumm), in the uterus, cervix, vagina, vulva, and 

 in Bartholin's glands. The real seats of gonorrhoeal infection are 

 mucous membranes lined by columnar epithelium, or epithelium 

 which closely resembles it. The grouping of the microbe in the 

 pus corpuscles, from a diagnostic point of view, is more important 

 than its diplococcus form. For the purpose of studying the eifects 

 of this microbe on the tissues, Bumm examined twenty-six specimens 

 of gonorrhoeal conjunctivitis. When the gonococcus is brought in 

 contact with the conjunctiva or the urethra, the first growth takes 

 place upon the surface of the epithelial layer, as its entrance into 

 the deeper layers meets with difficulty, and Bumm asserts that it 

 penetrates deeper only after the epithelial layer has become some- 

 what loosened by inflammatory changes that is, after intercellular 

 passages have formed. A dense, compact layer of epithelial cells 

 furnishes a safe protection against gouorrhceal infection, so much 



