300 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



raised, brownish, and finely granular in appearance, and 

 roundish with a crinkled margin. The cocci from cultures 

 resemble those in the pus, but tetrads are more frequently 

 met with. Egg-broth also gives good results. The 

 fermentation reactions and comparison with other Gram- 

 negative cocci will be found in the table, p. 302. The 

 specific virulence of gonorrhceal pus is destroyed by 

 exposure to a temperature of 60 C. for ten minutes. 



Pathogenicity . The gonococcus is a strictly parasitic 

 organism, and seems exclusively to attack man. It is 

 the cause of gonorrhoea in the male and female (gonor- 

 rhceal urethritis and vulvitis) and of gonorrhceal 

 ophthalmia. Inoculation experiments on the human 

 subject have proved it capable of producing a typical 

 gonorrhceal urethritis and vulvitis. 



The gonococcus is associated with a variety of lesions 

 besides those already mentioned, viz. epididymitis, 

 prostatitis, ovaritis, salpingitis, cystitis, peritonitis arid 

 arthritis. It has been met with in the blood, and occa- 

 sionally produces pneumonia, endocarditis, pericarditis, 

 and meningitis. The gonococcus is fatal to guinea-pigs 

 and mice by intraperitoneal inoculation. Injected into 

 the anterior chamber of the rabbit's eye, it produces a 

 typical ophthalmia with irido-cyclitis. 



Complement fixation may be obtained in many gono- 

 coccal infections by using a polyvalent gonococcal antigen. 



Toxin, anti-serum, and vaccine. Christmas obtained a 

 toxin by cultivating the gonococcus in an ascitic fluid 

 broth and with the toxin immunised rabbits and produced 

 a serum having some immunising and curative value. By 

 injecting cultures into animals an anti-serum is obtained 

 which is experimentally of curative value, 1 but it is not 

 much used in treatment. A vaccine may be prepared by 

 sterilising cultures with heat, and has proved of service in 



1 See Terrien, Debre and Paraf, Ann de Vlnst. Pasteur, xxxiv, 1920, p. 33. 



