CHAPTER VII. 



GONORRHCEA, SOFT SORE, SYPHILIS. 

 GONORRHOEA. 



Introductory. The micrococcus now known to be the 

 cause of gonorrhoea, and often spoken of as the gonococcus, 

 was first described by Neisser, who in 1879 g ave an account 

 of its microscopical characters as seen in the pus of gonor- 

 rhoeal affections, both of the urethra and of the con- 

 junctiva. He considered that this organism was peculiar 

 to the disease, and that its characters were distinctive. The 

 earlier announcements regarding pure cultures obtained on 

 peptone-gelatine and other media, on which it does not 

 really grow, are now known to be erroneous, but later it 

 was successfully isolated and cultivated on solidified blood 

 serum by Bumm and others. Its characters have since 

 been minutely studied, and by inoculations of cultures on 

 the human subject its causal relationship to the disease has 

 been conclusively established. 



The G-onococcus. Microscopical Characters. The 

 organism of gonorrhoea is a small micrococcus which very 

 often occurs in the diplococcus form, the adjacent margins 

 of the two cocci being flattened, or even slightly concave, 

 so that between them there is a -small oval interval which 

 does not stain. An appearance is thus presented which 

 has been compared to that of two beans placed side by 

 side (vide Fig. 54). When division takes place in the two 



