246 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



negative cocci will be found in the Table, p. 248. The 

 specific virulence of gonorrhoeal pus is destroyed by 

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



Paihogenicity . The gonococcus is a strictly parasitic 

 organism, and seems exclusively to attack man. From 

 inoculation experiments on the human subjects it appears 

 to be the specific organism of gonorrhoeal urethritis and 

 vulvitis. In the female it is most frequent in the urethral 

 or vulvar discharge, less so in that from the cervical canal, 

 and is rarely or never seen in a purely vaginal one. It is 

 generally, even at an early stage, associated with other 

 organisms, particularly other diplococci (see Table, p. 248) 

 which have to be distinguished from the gonococcus. 

 The features which serve to identify the latter are its 

 shape and size, its non-staining by Gram's method, its 

 arrangement in groups within the pus- cells, absence of 

 growth on ordinary media, the characters of the colonies, 

 and the fermentation reactions. 



The gonococcus is associated with a variety of lesions 

 besides those already mentioned, viz. epididymitis, 

 ovaritis, salpingitis, cystitis, peritonitis, arthritis, and 

 conjunctivitis. It has been met with in the blood, and 

 occasionally produces endocarditis, pericarditis, and 

 meningitis. The gonococcus is fatal to guinea-pigs and 

 mice by intraperitoneal inoculation. 



Toxin, anti-serum, and vaccine. Christmas 1 found that 

 the blood- serum of the rabbit, fluid or coagulated, is an 

 excellent culture medium for the gonococcus. By culti- 

 vating the gonococcus for ten days in an ascitic bouillon 

 mixture he succeeded in obtaining a toxin which, when 

 injected intravenously into rabbits in large doses, caused 

 death, in smaller doses fever and loss of weight, while 

 precipitated with alcohol and injected into the anterior 

 chamber of the eye it produced severe inflammation. By 



1 Ann. de Vlnst. Pasteur, xi, 1897, p. 609. 



