SPECIAL FORMS OF CONJUNCTIVAL INFECTION 213 



is added. For continuous propagation, Thalmann recommended that 

 an equal amount of pig's serum should be added to faintly acid 

 bouillon.) 



Opinions are not agreed as to the usefulness of this medium. 

 According to Lehmann and Neumann, who refer to the records of 

 Meyer and Barmann, this medium was no better than ordinary agar ; 

 other authors, however, praise it. 



The young colonies on serum agar, etc., are very delicate, super- 

 ficial, grey, and transparent, hardly projecting above the surface 

 level. Older colonies are very faintly granular, their borders 

 clearer and wavy. They are slimy in consistence. (They can readily 

 be distinguished from the opaque yellowish colonies of the Micro- 

 coccus catarrhalis.) On blood media the colonies push the blood 

 aside so that a kind of septum is formed between them; the same 

 takes place on media covered with pus. In serum bouillon a slimy 

 deposit is formed, and if kept very still a scum rises to the surface. 

 A diffuse cloudiness occurs when the tube is shaken. (Cf. the 

 difference in Mic. catarrhalis, p. 216.) 



Gonococci die out rapidly in the bodies of animals. When in large 

 quantity they cause local inflammation, due to their endo-toxins. 

 When injected into ,the anterior chamber, they cause a transient 

 exudation (Christmas). Introduced in sufficient numbers into the 

 peritoneum, they kill mice, guinea-pigs, and rabbits. Sometimes the 

 Gonococci can be cultivated from the blood post-mortem. Immunity 

 can be produced against this action by repeated injections, and a highly 

 efficient immune serum can be prepared for the differential diagnosis 

 of the Gonococci. Specific immune bodies are often found in the 

 blood of patients with gonorrhoaa by the complement method of 

 Bruch, 1 when a general infection, especially an arthritis, has occurred. 

 Cultures previously killed also produce inflammation. Morax and 

 Elmassian were able by the repeated instillation of such material to 

 produce a conjunctivitis, commencing after twenty-four hours' in- 

 cubation, in men and animals. 



Transference of the Gonococci by inoculation on to the mucous 

 membranes of animals did not succeed. When a large quantity of 

 virulent Gonococci were introduced into the conjunctiva of a young 

 rabbit and the lids then stitched together, the poison introduced caused 

 a transient discharge, in which the Gonococci rapidly died out, or at 

 least did not multiply (Heller, Morax and Elmassian, Randolph). 



1 Deutsch. Med. Wocli., 1906, No. 34; also R. Miiller and Oppenheim, Wien. Klin. 

 Woch., 1906, No. 29. 



